90 FEENS OF THE LAKE COUNTEY 



as gloriously beautiful in their varieties of brown as 

 they were in their living greenness. 



The Bracken grows everywhere : not only through- 

 out our own islands, but in all parts of the world, from 

 Lapland (at about 67 degrees north) to the Cape of 

 Good Hope. It rises above the coast-level in the 

 Scottish Islands to an elevation of 2,000 feet. It is 

 useful for very many purposes. In our north country 

 the dried fronds make capital litter for cattle ; they 

 are also an excellent elastic material for packing and 

 storing fruit in, a fine covering to preserve plants from 

 frost, and make good thatch, employing the stems also. 

 They are not bad fuel, though light and quick-burning ; 

 and, cut green, are good manure for land, one-third of 

 their bulk, according to Sprengel, consisting of mineral 

 substances, potash, silica, lime, soda, chlorine, mag- 

 nesia, oxide of iron, phosphoric acid, &c. The dry 

 herbage is said to be rich in nitrogen. They are espe- 

 cially good for manui'ing potatoes. Good also for feed- 

 ing pigs, who are fond of the "roots" (the underground 

 caudices), which are succulent and starchy, and who 

 have no objection to a jelly made by boiling the young 

 and tender fronds. Mr. Lees suggests that the same, 

 not made into jelly, but boiled as greens, would not be 

 bad eaten with the pig instead of by him ; and Dr. 

 Clarke recommends them when very young, tender, 

 and blanched, as a substitute for asparagus. The New 

 Zealanders eat the " roots " of a variety of the Bracken, 

 P. esculenta, pounded between stones and roasted ; in 

 Siberia these same stems are used in brewing a kind of 

 beer, one-third fern-root to two-thirds malt ; and the 



