106 THE BIOLOGY OF A PLANT. 



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

 simple structure ; it is of a convenient size, and lias 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 

 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, exce23t 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 north 

 and south temperate zones. ... In Lapland it just j^asses 

 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." {Sy7ioj)sis 

 Filicuin?) 



"Pteris {jirepL^^ the common Greek name iov fern)^ signify- 

 ing wing or feather, well accords with the apj^earance of Pteris 

 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 niade into a kind of gruei called gojio.^ 

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

 (Sowerby.) 



The specific name aquilina (ciquila^ 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 also 

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

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



Tlie popular designation of this plant as ' ' the l)rake ' ' testi- 



