BRACKEN FERN AND TWO SPECIES 41 



leaf. When the sporangia are mature the back 

 of the Bracken frond, with its outline of bright 

 brown, is very pretty. The number of spores 

 produced is prodigious, and it is a common 

 experience to find one's boots covered with the 

 brown dust after walking through the fronds. 

 It is believed that the Bracken is rarely propa- 

 gated in a natural state by the agency of its 

 spores. The strong-growing rhizomes provide 

 a very effective method of increase, and as has 

 been stated, the Bracken Fern is very quick to 

 claim any land which has been allowed to go out 

 of cultivation. 



The Bracken Fern grows almost everywhere 

 in the United Kingdom. It is, however, not 

 able to hold its own on mountains of greater 

 elevation than two thousand feet. There seems 

 to be a popular impression that the Bracken is 

 a difficult plant to grow in the garden. This is 

 not really the case, the trouble, as a rule, arising 

 from the careless manner in which the rhizomes 

 are torn up when the plant is removed. The 

 Bracken is, of course, a useful subject for placing 

 in shrubberies and under trees, but seeing that 

 the travelling rhizomes take up a great deal of 

 room, it should be kept out of the ordinary 

 borders. 



Adiantum capillus-veneris. The generic name 

 is connected with a Greek word adiantos, which 

 means " dry or unmoistened," this having 

 reference to the fact that water rolls off the frond 

 of this Fern. Capillus-veneris simply means 

 " the hair of Venus," and this doubtless refers 

 to the shining black leaf -stalk and its delicate 

 branches. The True Maidenhair. 



This is one of the most beautiful of our native 

 ferns, and it would probably have been ex- 

 terminated long ago in this country were it not 



