7 o THE BRACKEN. 



Less mention of this species is made by our own 

 writers, though it is surely not for lack of occasion, as it 

 fills a distinctive place in our scenery. It is perhaps the 

 commonest American fern. Found both in the wood- 

 land and the open field, its favourite haunt is in neither, 

 but in that half-way ground where man leaves off and 

 Nature begins the copse or thicket. Unlike most 

 ferns, it seems to care little for shade. Given a scrubby 

 hill-top or a neglected roadside half grown up to weeds 

 and bushes and the bracken is sure to be there. It is 

 the dominant fern of the half reclaimed lands. Indeed, 

 it is said that the word brake, by which the fern is often 

 known, is from an old Saxon word for fallow or clearing 

 and that- it was given to this fern because it is the first 

 green thing to spring up in such places after they have 

 been burned over. The word has since come to be 

 applied, though less properly, to many of our larger 

 ferns. The prevalent idea that brakes differ in some 

 mysterious way from true ferns is without foundation 

 in fact. 



The most prominent characteristics of this fern are 

 strength and coarseness, qualities well in keeping with 

 the tangles in which it dwells. In eastern America it 

 seldom grows more than three feet high with fronds that 

 spread more than a yard across, but in more favourable 

 localities it reaches a much larger size. Specimens thir- 

 teen feet long have been recorded from Ireland. Wil- 

 liamson notes that in the Alleghanies it covers large 

 tracts and becomes the favourite haunt of the deer. 

 Although the bracken is not particular as regards habitat 

 its presence is supposed to indicate a thin and barren soil. 



The rootstock is black, smooth and about as thick as 

 ones little-finger. It is rather deep in the earth and 



