THE BRACKEN. 
' Tis no easier to account for the likes and 
dislikes of ferns, than it is for those of 
more highly organized beings. Our ferns 
annually cast their spores by millions 
upon the wind to be sown broadcast, but 
the majority have seldom been able to 
get beyond their rather restricted limits, 
although the adjacent territory seems just 
as favourable to their growth. There are 
a few conspicuous exceptions to this rule, 
however, such as the cosmopolitan polypody, bladder 
fern and maidenhair spleenwort, but none of these are 
at home in so many places as our single representative of 
the brackens. There are nearly a hundred other species 
of this genus scattered about the world, but our plant 
has a wider range, both geographically and altitudinally 
than all the rest of its family together. 
Wherever the bracken (Preris aguilina) grows, it forms 
a conspicuous feature of the landscape. In British song 
and story it is constantly associated with the wildness 
and desolation of heath, moor and mountain side. 
“ The heath this night must be my bed 
The bracken curtain for my head.” 
sings Scott, while Cowper, drawing a picture of untamed 
nature, speaks of 
“ The common overgrown with fern, and rough 
With prickly gorse.” 
