FERNS 
OF THE ENGLISH LAKE COUNTRY. 
v 
The English Lake Country might not inappropri¬ 
ately be called The Land of Ferns, for there is no 
other part of the kindgom, perhaps, which affords 
greater facilities for their propagation and growth. 
The climate and soil are peculiarly adapted to their 
luxuriant development. The high average rain-fall 
of the district, and other circumstances, cause a more 
or less constant humidity of its atmosphere which is 
all-important to fern life. The temperature, so varied 
by elevation, shelter, and proximity to the sea, is 
admirably suited to the larger number of the British 
species. Such valleys as Windermere and many 
others besides, are protected by lofty mountains from 
the north and east winds, and being also influenced 
by the sea air, their mean winter temperature is 
rendered higher than that of many midland or even 
southern counties. Nor is it a less striking feature 
in the climate that severe droughts are seldom ex¬ 
perienced : so much is this the case, that not un- 
B 
