FERN TRIBE 143 
cannot be turned to any economical uses, nor will cattle eat of their crisp 
leaves. The plant was by old writers called Rough Spleenwort. Gerarde 
says: “There be empiricks or blind practitioners of this age, who teach that 
with this hearbe not only the hardnesse and swelling of the spleene, but all 
infirmities: of the liver also, may be effectually and in a very short time 
removed, insomuch that the sodden liver of a beast is restored to his former 
constitution againe, that is, made like unto a raw liver, if it bee boyled againe 
with this hearbe. But this is to be reckoned among the old wives’ fables, 
' and that also which Dioscorides telleth of, touching the gathering of Spleen- 
wort by night, and other most vaine things which are found scattered here 
and there in old books, from which most of the later writers do not abstaine, 
who many times fill up their pages with lies and frivolous stories, and by so 
doing do not a little deceive young students.” The Spleenwort of Dioscorides 
was, however, apparently the Ceterach. 
13. BRAKE (Ptéis). 
Common Brake (P. aquilina).—Fronds three-parted ; branches twice 
pinnate ; pinnules linear-lanceolate, the lower ones often pinnatifid or cut. 
The Brake or Bracken is the most common of all our ferns, and one well 
known to every one accustomed to the country. Though less elegant and 
graceful than some of our smaller species, yet it well deserves the epithet 
of feathery, when it attains a large size, and bows gracefully before the 
autumnal gale. Like many other ferns, it is not luxuriant on chalky soils, 
but is abundant on those which are stony or sandy ; sometimes half filling 
the copse by its plentiful growth, often forming picturesque clumps on the 
heathland, where 
‘* Heath. bell dark and Bracken green” 
are among the most frequent plants. On the winter hedge large masses of 
the dead fronds may often be seen hanging about the boughs, and of one 
uniform pale brown colour, contrasting with the green leaves of polypody 
on the trunk of the tree, or with clumps of hart’s-tongue, among whose 
bright green fronds we may see the occasional tint of brown, which tells of 
the touch of winter. The tall branches of the Brake, too, bordering the 
park, form an excellent covert for game, and the deer are fond of Tying 
among them :— 
‘*The wild buck bells from ferny brake.” 
The fronds, though often not more than a foot high, attain great luxu- 
riance in some places, and become taller than any other of our native ferns. 
They are sometimes ten or twelve feet in height, and their texture is crisp 
and brittle. In the north of England, and in various parts of Scotland, 
this fern is used for many domestic and economical purposes. In Scotland, 
country women may often be seen coming away from the heath laden with 
its young branches, which serve as food for swine ; and the peasant cuts it 
down in large quantities, and placing it in heaps to dry in the sun, and to 
be wetted by the rains, uses it when thus prepared for manure on his land ; 
or he cuts up some of the fresh fronds, and mingles them with hay as food 
for his horses. A writer in the Magazine of Natural History says, that in 
