185 



place of natural growth is well described by Sir W. Scott, 

 who says 



" Where the copse-wood is the greenest, 

 "Where the fountain glistens sheenest, 

 Where the morning dew lies longest, 

 There the Lady Fern grows strongest," 



It grows two feet or more high, and is quite smooth in every 

 part. Its stem has along it, on both sides, thirty or forty pair 

 of tapering, pointed leaflets, long near the middle of the frond, 

 but shorter towards the point, and also near the root. The 

 leaflets are again divided into lobes, and those are scolloped at 

 the edges and pointed. The sori, that is the masses of seed, 

 are small, kidney-shaped, and always distinct from each other. 



O. S. Forked Spleenwort, Alternate-leaved Spleenwort, Sea Spleen- 

 wort, Green Spleenwort, Smooth Rock Spleenwort, and Lanceolate 

 Spleenwort. 



BRAKES. PTERIS. 

 COMMON BRAKES. Pteris aquilina. 



Plate 14, jig. 19. 



This can live and thrive almost everywhere, thus it may be 

 seen on all commons, and in all parks and preserves in lanes, 

 in forests, and on mountains, though not at any very great 

 height on them. Its roots creep along to some distance. Its 

 stem is stiff, as thick as a child's finger, smooth, and without 

 leaflets at the lower part, but the upper part of it is clothed 

 with many, which become larger and more divided, from the 

 point of the leaf downwards. The seed is in one long line that 

 runs round the edge of all the leaflets and lobes. It grows 

 three or four feet high, and is used for various purposes in 

 some places as fuel, sometimes for fodder, and very often 

 cherries are packed in it, and thus are sent to the London 

 markets. The places where it grows are much frequented by 

 the deer though neither they, nor any other animal, are fond 

 of any species of Fern as a food. The seed is exceedingly 

 minute, and scattered by the smallest touch. 



" The Ferns are waving all statelily here. 

 With seed-stored fronds thickly laid, 

 And shedding when hastily brushed by the deer 

 Their light, fertile dust o'er the glade." 



