THE BRACKEN. 



foliage of the hedge-banks, covering the hill-sides, 

 on the bleak hill-tops, grow the Brakes ; now 

 tall and vigorous, now dwarfed and feeble : 

 but whether of giant or pigmy growth, ever 

 graceful. Where yonder wood has, year by year, 

 for many a long year past, shed its soft crop of 

 leaves, which, softly falling, soften in decay, and 

 form a spongy bed of mould there the Bracken 

 revels : there its roots delightedly wander through 

 the congenial soil, sending up a miniature forest 

 of delicate-looking fronds, which wave their 

 graceful tips underneath the larger forest growths, 

 which spread themselves against the sunlight. 



The Bracken has a creeping root. It is, in 

 fact, a curious kind of root half stem, half root 

 which crawls along horizontally underground. 

 Sometimes, when attracted by soft, congenial soil,, 

 this root penetrates deeply into the earth. It 

 has, in fact, been known to go down to as great a. 

 depth as fifteen feet. Commonly, however, the 

 depth is much less. If the top soil be sufficiently 

 congenial to the plant, it contents itself with 

 creeping most extensively however. As it creeps 

 horizontally and its vertical subterranean ad- 



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