136 
BLUEFIELDS RIDGE. 
victims as they pass, and, wheeling round, return 
again and again to the prey. 
But if I were asked to name the most prominent 
character of the vegetation on these lofty peaks, I 
should designate it a region of Ferns. Scores of 
species, and thousands of individuals, fringe the sides 
of the path with their graceful fronds, and almost 
choke the way. If we sit down on the grey-spurred 
root of a tree, the great fronds of Phlehodium aureum, 
so elegantly pinnate, arch over our heads, and spread 
widely on each side ; while the eye is pleased with 
its massive twisted leaf-bases, covered with golden 
hair that shines like silk, and with the brown, de- 
licate, thread-like roots, that cling to the bark of the 
tree spur, meandering over it like a spider’s web. 
The large triangular pinnae of Adiantum macrojphyl- 
lum overlapping each other, and gradually diminish- 
ing, have a very striking appearance ; and many of 
the minuter kinds growing in the hollows of the 
stones, and beneath the roots of the trees, display a 
grace and beauty peculiarly their own. Within the 
gloom of the forest other forms are seen in luxuriant 
profusion. The trees are loaded with them : many 
of the terrestrial kinds spring in feathery tufts from 
the crevices of the bark, and curve gracefully towards 
the ground ; others fringe the horizontal limbs, and 
conceal the forks ; and others, perhaps the most 
curious of all, as Phlehodium lycopodoides, Ph. vac- 
cinifolium, Polypodium acrostichoides, &c., crawl up 
the trunks of the tall trees, from the earth to their 
summits ; their lengthened slender stems clinging 
fast to the bark, fringed, throughout all their irre- 
