Page:Parsons How to Know the Ferns 7th ed.djvu/166

 the shelves of shaded rocks, again climbing exposed hill-sides, where its fresh beauty is always a surprise.

The fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort usually face the sun, even if so doing necessitates the twisting of its stalk.

In childhood the delicate little fronds and dark, glistening, thread-like stalks of the Maidenhair Spleenwort seemed to me a token of the mysterious, ecstatic presence of the deeper woods, of woods where dark hemlocks arched across the rock-broken stream, where the spongy ground was carpeted with low, nameless plants with white-veined or shining leaves and coral-like berries, where precious red-cupped mosses covered the fallen tree-trunks and strange birds sang unknown songs.

Perhaps because in those days it was a rare plant