the mosses that
grew on it that it was moistened from beneath the year through. The
protecting shade was of tall hickories, and a rock ledge some twenty
feet high shielded it from the south and east. We scraped the moss from
a circle of about six feet and loosened the surface of the earth only,
and very carefully. Then we spread some moist leaf-mould on the rough
but flat surface of a partly exposed rock. Going to a near-by bit of
woods that was being despoiled, as in your valley, we chose two great
mats of polypody and moss that had no piercing twigs to break the
fabric, and carefully peeled them from the rocks, as you would bark from
a tree, the matted rootstocks weaving all together. Moistening these
thoroughly, we wrapped them in a horse blanket and hurried home. The
earth and rock already prepared were sprinkled with water and the fern
fabric applied and gently but firmly pressed down, that resting on the
earth being held by the ever useful hairpin!

The rock graft was more difficult, but after many failures by way of
stones that rolled off, a coarse network of cords was put across and
fastened to whatever twigs or roots came in the way. Naturally a period
of constant sprinkling followed, and for that season the rock graft
seemed decidedly homesick, but the next spring resignation had set in,
and two years later the polypodys had completely adopted the new
location and were prepared to appropriate the whole of it.

So you see that there are comparatively only a few ferns, after all,
that are of great value to The Garden, You, and I, and likewise there
are but a few rules for their transplanting, viz.:--

Don't bother about the tops, for new ones will grow, but look to the
roots, and do not let them be exposed to the air or become dry in
travel. Examine the quality of soil from which you have taken the ferns,
and if you have none like it nearer home, take some with you for a
starter! Never dig up more on one day than you can plant during the
next, and above all remember that if a fern is worth tramping the
countryside for, it is worth careful planting, and that the moral
remarks made about the care in setting out of roses apply with double
force to the handling of delicate wild flowers and ferns.

Good luck to your knoll, Mary Penrose, and to your fern fence, if that
fancy pleases you. May the magic of fern seed fill your eyes and let you
see visions, the goodly things of heart's desire, when, all being
accompli