114 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [cil. II. 



It is certain, that where the brake flourishes, the 

 siliceous nature of the soil invariably prevails to a 

 very considerable depth. I have frequently seen the 

 stem of this cryptogamous plant followed four or five 

 feet into the soil without reaching its extremity. 

 Some authorities say that the stem is often eight or 

 nine feet long. When a frond of the brake is pulled 

 up, the blackened portion of it must not be mistaken 

 for root, it being merely the stem discoloured by ex- 

 posure to the ferruginous soil, which strikes a black 

 colour with the gallic acid and tannin in the bark of 

 the plant, where the air can gam access. 



Rooting to so great a depth, and each fragment of 

 root being reproductive, it is extirpated with extreme 

 difficulty. This renders it most obnoxious to the 

 cultivator; but the depth of light unretentive soil it 

 indicates, is also especially to be deprecated in the 

 eastern comities of England, for such soils more ra- 

 pidly become dry than any others ; and the annual 

 depth of rain in inches in that district is never more 

 than half as compared with the same atmospheric 

 deposition in the western counties of England, and 

 on an average of years much less. 



I have not the tables by me ; but I ^rill quote two 

 instances, from first-rate authorities, showing the dif- 

 ference of rain monthly in inches duriniT one year 

 only, 1842. The observations were made at Tliet- 

 ford and Hereford, places nearly equidistant from the 



