148 FILICES 
The following lines were written for this volume by Mary Isabella 
Tomkins :— 
THE BRACKEN. 
As a coming screen grows the Bracken green, 
Up springeth it fair and free, 
Where in many a fold, grotesque and old, 
Twineth the hawthorn tree ; 
A covert meet from the noontide heat, 
For should you steal anear 
You may chance discern, ’neath the spreading fern, 
The antlers of the deer. 
It boasteth a name of mystic fame, 
For who findeth its magic seed 
A witching and weirdly gift may claim 
To help him at his need : 
Unseen, unknown, he may pass alone 
Who owneth the fern-seed spell ; 
Like the viewless blast, he sweepeth past, 
And walks invisible ! 
Have ye to learn, how the Eagle fern 
Doth in its heart enshrine 
An oak-tree like that which the hunter Hearne 
Haunted in days ‘‘ lang syne” ? 
An oak-tree small is repeated all 
Complete in branch and root, 
Like the tree whereunto King Charles did flee, 
When press’d by hot pursuit. 
To his son its shade gave but traitor aid 
When, striving to lie conceal’d, 
On foot he fled, in fear-and dread, 
From Sedgemoor’s fatal field : 
In doublet mean was a peasant seen, 
Wearing a priceless ring— 
He whom the voice of the people’s choice 
So late had hail’d their king. 
Oh, Eagle fern! when I thee discern, 
When thy wither’d leaf I meet, 
In places the careless foot might spurn, 
The crowded mart or street, 
Thou takest me back to thy birthplace fair, 
Where thou wavest in thy pride, 
And the form of the hare and the deer’s close lair 
Do ’mid thy stems abide. 
14, MAIDEN-HAIR (Adidntum). 
True Maiden-hair (4. capillus-véneris)—Fronds bipinnate ; pinnules 
stalked, lobed, roundish, wedge-shaped, alternate; barren lobes serrated ; 
fertile lobes terminated by a linear-oblong cluster of fructification. Our only 
British species of this genus is easily known from all other native ferns by 
its fan-shaped leaflets, but the characteristics of the genus are to be found in 
the veining and the marginal fructification. The plant is called True 
Maiden-hair, to distinguish it from some other ferns which share with it its 
familiar name. It is one of the loveliest of our native plants, and in its wild 
state is among the most rare; but it is familiarly known to fern-lovers, 
because it is one of the most frequent ferns grown indoors. The main stalk 
of our Maiden-hair is seldom thicker than a packthread, and the little stalks 
which support the thin fan-shaped pinnules are so slight and elastic, so black 
