THE BRACKEN. 



care the rliizoma is liable to get broken. The 

 latter penetrates the soil to some depth, and to 

 transplant it successfully, you must dig deeply 

 down. The best plan is to remove such specimens 

 as may be found growing on shallow though rich 

 beds of leaf -mould ; that is to say, under con- 

 ditions which compel the rhizoma to creep hori- 

 zontally, instead of to grow down vertically. Then 

 in order not to break or injure the rhizoma, the 

 plant should be removed together with the soil 

 in which it may be growing. Small specimens 

 should be taken with this object, as it is generally 

 impossible to get up the roots of the larger 

 growths. We remember going to Hampstead 

 Heath, some few years since, for a small Bracken. 

 We removed one, turf and all, bodily, and the 

 same plant has grown bravely. At one time it 

 performed an extraordinary feat. We planted it 

 between two small rockeries amongst irregular 

 blocks of stone ; and during the summer it threw 

 up its fronds from its creeping rhizoma in various 

 directions. One morning we noticed what ap- 

 peared to be a broken tip freshly broken it 

 seemed of our Bracken frond lying on the top 



237 



