106 THE BIOLOGY OF A PLANT. 



Kuhn. This plant is not only common, but of comparatively 

 simple structure ; it is of a convenient size, and has been much 

 studied. It may therefore be taken both as a representative 

 fern and as a representative of all higher vegetal organisms. 



Habitat, Name, etc. The brake occurs widely distributed in I 

 the United States, under a great variety of conditions; e.g., in 

 loose pine groves, especially in sandy regions ; in open wood- 

 lands amongst the other undergrowth ; on hillside pastures and 

 in thickets indeed almost everywhere, except in very wet or 

 very dry places. It appears to be equally common elsewhere ; 

 for, according to Sir "W. J. Hooker, Pteris aquilina grows 

 " all round the world, both within the tropics and in the nortli 

 and south temperate zones. ... In Lapland it just passes, 

 within the Arctic circle, ascending in Scotland to 2000 feet, 

 in the Cameroon Mountains to 7000 feet, in Abyssinia to 8000 

 or 9000 feet, in the Himalayas to about 8000 feet." (Synopsis- 

 Filicum.} 



"Pteris (nTepis, the common Greek name for fern), signify- 

 ing wing or feather, well accords with the appearance of Pteri 

 aquilina, the most common and most generally distributed of 

 European ferns. It is possible that this fern may rank as the 

 most universally distributed of all vegetable productions, extend- 

 ing its dominion from west to east over continents and islands in 

 a zone reaching from Northern Europe and Siberia to New 

 Zealand, where it is represented by, and perhaps identical with, 

 the well-known Pteris esculenta. The rhizome of our plant 

 like that of the latter is edible, and though not employed in 

 Great Britain as food, powdered and mixed with a small quan- 

 tity of barley-meal it is made into a kind of gruel called gofo, 

 in use among the poorer inhabitants of the Canary Islands. "- 

 (Sowerby.) 



The specific name aquilina (aquila, eagle) and a popular 

 name, "eagle-fern," in Germany, etc., have come from a, 

 fanciful likeness of the dark tissue seen in a transverse section 

 of the leaf-stalk to the figure of an outspread eagle. The same 

 figure has, however, been compared to an oak-tree, and has al><> 

 given rise to the name of " devil' s-foot fern," from its alleged 

 resemblance to "the impression of the deil's foot," etc., etc. 



The popular designation of this plant as ' ' the brake ' ' testi- 



