2 26 F£A'XS. 



found it in several localities. Though the Bracken appears to be 

 spread over a great portion of the globe, it is singular how few know of 

 the benefits man can derive from it. The beasts of the field even leave it 

 untasted ; it affords indeed shelter to many of the smaller quadrupeds^ 

 the Hare and some others, and the Partridge, Ptarmigan and Quail find 

 a hiding ])lace for their brood among its sheltering stems, in their wild 

 moorland haunts ; even the insect tribes seem to leave it untouched. 

 The gardener however, avails himself of the leaves for packing and 

 storing fruit, but still the supply far exceeds the demand. Formerly 

 its nauseous astringent roots were concocted into an unpalatable dose 

 for children supposed to be troubled with worms, but even that has 

 been abandoned for other more efficacious medicines. As litter for 

 cattle-yards, it has sometimes been gathered, and the country folk in 

 one of the English counties make a washing lye from the ashes of the 

 stalks and roots, which they use as a substitute for soap or soda. A 

 bleaching alkali might very probably be obtained from the burnt ashes 

 of this plant that might be found valuable to the manufacturer. 



A species of Bracken is used by the New Zealanders as food, as has 

 been asserted by travellers, and the young fronds and root-stocks of our 

 own species can also be used in the same manner. Though so stout 

 and rigid, the Bracken is one of the first of our ferns to succumb before 

 the influence of early frosts ; its verdure departs even before the winds 

 and rams of October have scattered the leaves from the forest trees. 



The classical name Ptcris aquilina, is said to have been derived 

 from the fancied resemblance that the root, when cut transversely, bears 

 to the heraldic figure of the spread eagle — from ptcron, the Greek 

 word for a wing, and aqiiila, an eagle. 



But country maids, when I was a child, read yet more interesting 

 symbols in the cut fern root, and many a time have I seen them poring 

 over the cut portion to decipher the initial letters of their sweethearts' 

 names or their occupation, and wonderful indeed were the auguries they 

 drew. Here were a swarm of bees, and a hive, that denoted plenty ; 

 a plough, that was his calling as a labourer ; a bill- hook, or a grove of 

 trees, a hedger and ditcher, or a wood-man ; a man casting seed into 

 the ground was a master farmer, and various other devices were 

 conjured up by the learned in such sort of fortune-telling — at all events 

 it was as satisfactory as laying out the cards, or tossing the grounds in a 

 tea-cup, and somewhat more picturestiue. 



Rock Vi\<.\K\:- -Pe/hca gnici/is, (Hook). 



( )f this genus we have in this part of Canada two species, P. 

 gracilis, and /'. airopiirpurea, both of which affect a rocky soil, more 



