7O 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 
