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THE FERN PARADISE. 
shire it grows not only on garden walls, but on the 
housetops, under cottage eaves, and indeed almost 
everywhere ; and in cultivation it will smile re- 
freshingly on your efforts to preserve it. It is, 
finally, though plentiful, not common ; and though 
simple, it is beautiful. 
2. THE MOUNTAIN POLYPODY. 
Polypodium phegopteris. 
A GENTLE member — soft and graceful — of the 
charming family of Polypodies, is the Beech or 
Mountain Fern. Not possessed of the astonishing 
vigour of its relative Vnlgare , it quails before the 
cutting autumnal winds ; and bending to the cold, 
becomes dormant during the winter, but reappears 
with dewy grace when beautiful May returns. In 
damp woods and mountains moist grows the 
Mountain Polypody. A slender rhizome it has, 
which creeps extensively, producing black fibrous 
roots. From the upper surface of its creeping 
rhizomes start its fronds, growing from a height 
of six inches to more than eighteen. There is a 
