162 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



Genus XL PTERIS, Lmnaus. 



Pteris is the most common of all our Perns. It is that 

 which occurs almost everywhere in woods and in sandy 

 wastes, often appropriating to itself the whole surface of the 

 ground, but seeming to possess the peculiarity of avoiding 

 chalky soil. It is a very variable plant in its appearance, 

 owing to differences in its size and development dependent 

 on the circumstances in which it grows. Sometimes in dry, 

 very sandy soil, the plant becomes a pigmy, not reaching a 

 foot in height, and being merely bipinnate. The opposite 

 extreme occurs when the plant is growing on a damp hedge- 

 bank in a warm, shady lane, where it attains eight or ten 

 feet in height, and is proportionately compound in its de- 

 velopment. Its more usual size is from three to four feet in 

 height. Under circumstances which favour the most luxu- 

 riant development, this common and usually vulgar- looking 

 plant combines the most noble and graceful aspect, perhaps, 

 which is borne by any of our indigenous species, its fronds 

 scrambling up among the bushes which sustain them at the 

 base, while their graceful feathery-looking tops form, over- 

 head, a living arch of the tenderest green. The Pteris, or 

 Bracken, is known among the native Ferns by having the 



