54 
THE FERN PAEADISE. 
Those only who have explored the Devonshire 
coast along the Bristol Channel on the north, and 
along the English Channel on the south, and who 
are also familiar with the interior of the county, 
can properly realise the extreme magnificence of 
its landscapes. But we believe that thousands of 
the tourists who annually visit the western 4 Gar¬ 
den of England 5 —for Devonshire well deserves 
that appellation—whilst deeply impressed with the 
general loveliness of the county, nevertheless find 
it difficult to explain what it is that lends the pecu¬ 
liar character of softness and grace to the scenery. 
Here is the secret. The whole county is richly and 
luxuriantly clothed with Ferns. The number and 
variety of the most exquisite forms of these beauti¬ 
ful plants to be found in Devonshire are equalled by 
those of no other county in the United Kingdom. 
Devonshire is emphatically the £ paradise ’ of the 
British Ferns. There they are in very truth at 
home. The soil and the air are adapted to them, 
and they adapt themselves to the whole aspect of 
the place. They clothe its hill-sides and its hill¬ 
tops ; they grow in the moist depths of its valleys; 
they fringe the banks of its streams; they are to 
