?4 BRITISH FERNS. 



from that by the lines being in it confined to the margin, 

 leaving the centre unoccupied, while in Eleclmum the ex- 

 treme margin is unoccupied by the sori. 



Ptet^is is a Greek name for a Fern, and is derived from 

 another Greek word, which signifies feather; and, of course, 

 is applied in reference to the graceful feather-like aspect 

 which the fronds of Ferns generally possess. When the 

 plant is very luxuriant this name is quite as applicable to 

 the Bracken as to any other known Fern. This consideration 

 is perhaps enough to justify the application to this species, 

 by the older writers, of the name of Female Fern, which 

 scarcely seems appropriate to the commoner uncouth-looking 

 form which the plant more usually bears. 



COMMON BRAKES, OR BRACKEN. {Plate IX.] 



The botanical name of the bracken is Pteris aquilina; 

 that of Eupteris aquilina has also been proposed. 



This Fern has a caudex that creeps very extensively be- 

 neath the surface of the soil. This caudex is thickish, black- 

 looking, and succulent, containing a good deal of starch. 

 From it are produced, at intervals, the annual fronds, which 

 generally make their appearance about the latter end of May. 

 The fronds themselves have been variously described, and 

 often erroneously, for they are not unfrequently said to be 

 three-branched ; but except when very much starved and 

 stunted, do not approach that form very nearly. They are, 

 in reality, bipinnate, or when very luxuriant tripinnate, the 

 pinnae standing opposite in pairs, each pair in succession 

 becoming fully developed, while the main rachis is extending 

 upwards, and the next pp.ir is beginning to unfold. The 

 mature fronds are thus twice or thrice pinnate, with the pairs 

 of pinnae standing opposite. The stipes is downy while 

 young, and the part under ground is black, like the creeping 

 stem itself, and spindle-shaped just at the base. Average 

 specimens of the fronds are tripinnate, that is, they produce 

 a certain number of pairs of branch-like pinnae, which 

 branches are bipinnate. We must confine our further 

 description to one of these branches, selected from the lower 

 part of the frond. The general form is ovate, a little elon- 

 gated ; that of its pinnae (the secondary pinnae) narrow 

 lanceolate. These latter are placed rather closely together, 

 and are again divided into a series of pinnules, which are 

 either undivided or more elongated, and deeply pinnatifid or 

 sinuate. Each pinnule of the undivided form has a distinct 

 midvein, producing alternate lateral venules, which become 



