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bracken clothes the ground with graceful shoulder-high 

 frondage, deep enough to hide all but the antlers of the 

 deer which may find harbourage therein. Save the Royal 

 Fern, w^e have none other of so bold a growth, and that is 

 stiff and formal as compared with the broad-spreading, 

 pendulous, much cut frondage of the despised Bracken. 

 The Pteris family, of which the Bracken is the sole British 

 representative, is a large one, and is distinguished by the 

 spore heaps being arranged in marginal lines, which are 

 covered by the recurved edges of the frond segments. A 

 considerable number of our decorative market ferns belong 

 to the genus, as may be easily ascertained by examination 

 of this peculiarity. Few people, even fern-hunters, have 

 paid much attention to this species from the varietal point 

 of view, and yet it is a very variable one, and given an 

 extensive area covered by it, examination will almost 

 invariably show more than one variety and generally three, 

 viz. the prevailing common type, a much more divided one, 

 and a very distinct, crispy, hard fronded form with narrow, 

 leathery divisions, a darker green colour and somewhat 

 congested habit. These distinct forms are found inter- 

 mingled, and often extend for considerable distances, a 

 frond cropping up here, there and yonder, according as the 

 long underground travelling rootstocks have wound their 

 way amid the labyrinth of those of their companions. 



A fourth form, which we have found repeatedly, has the 

 fronds beautifully curved, all the side divisions being arched 

 or revolute, while the tips are more or less spirally twisted. 

 A considerable tract of ground on both sides the road from 

 Windermere to Bo'ness is exclusively occupied by a very 

 fine form of this, and we found it also in quantity by the 

 roadside near Shirenewton when visiting the late Mr. E. J. 

 Lowe. We have noted it elsewhere, but hardly so finely 

 characterized. Polydactylous varieties are also not 

 uncommon, but frequently only partially fingered, and at 

 Faygate, in Sussex, there are many acres occupied mainly, 

 and in some spots exclusively, with a very good crested 



