A PARADISE OE PERNS. 
75 
between tlie luxuriant masses of vegetation which 
stand out from the hedge-banks. During one 
part of the way the lane runs at the foot of a 
dark wood. Then continuing its course it seems 
almost to sink into the earth, whilst high Fern- 
covered banks rise on each side. For a part of 
the distance a limpid stream trickles down the 
declivity. The ground is literally carpeted with 
grass and wild flowers ; and everywhere, hanging 
out of the pollard trunks, densely clothing the 
hedge-banks, and growing along the edge of the 
trickling stream, Ferns are to be found in count¬ 
less numbers. In places where the path has been 
cut deeply through the soft slate-rock, the high 
banks of the cutting rise upwards almost perpendi¬ 
cularly, excluding the sunshine; and there, in the 
moist interstices between the soft fragments of 
stone, are numerous species of the rock-loving 
Ferns, luxuriating most in places where the water 
is percolating through the surface of the embank¬ 
ment. Growing in positions where its tiny crown 
secures protection under some small jutting point 
of rock, is the little Wall Hue (Asplenium ruta 
muraria ), a very diminutive Fern, with pretty 
