THE FEEN PARADISE. 
reason,’ says the Saturday Reviewer, ‘ why trans- 
planted Ferns should not gladden the interiors of 
very humble homes, given a rudimentary know- 
ledge of what a Fern is, and an excursion or two 
no further than Epping Forest, though excursion 
trips now-a-days are cheap enough to allow of 
going further afield.’ He adds that ‘to distin- 
guish the haunts, differences, and particular con- 
stitutions ’ of Ferns takes ‘ time and patience, 
though so favourite are they with persons of taste 
that there is scarcely one to which some helpful 
verse is not mentally tacked, as, for instance, with 
regard to the Lady Fern in Waverley : — 
‘ Where the copsewood is the greenest, 
Where the fountain glistens sheenest, 
Where the morning dew lies longest, 
There the Lady Fern grows strongest.* 
But, like every other study, love and patience give 
the mastery of it, and it is a good thing to acquire 
it by degrees.’ 
Another Reviewer, evidently penning his 
pleasant criticisms under the influence of the 
midsummer heats, exclaims,— ‘ A Fern paradise l 
38 
