PERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 97 



Our common Brake is one of the most frequent ferns 

 in many parts of the United States of America. Sir 

 Charles Lyell saw it in abundance on the mountains of 

 New Hampshire, where the Maples with their crimson 

 foliage, and the boughs of the Spruce fir, and the rich 

 flowers of the Kalmia waved in their glory above the 

 moist ground which was covered with the green Bracken ; 

 and it is in that land, as in ours, used for packing 

 fruit. The author of these pages has often seen this 

 fern employed for making a bright fire on the hearth, 

 or has helped, during childhood, to gather it from the 

 hedges of the cherry orchards of Kent, that the cherry- 

 pickers might bind it over their baskets of fruit, its 

 large fronds keeping the glossy cherries cool and fresh 

 for the London markets. As a packing material for 

 apples it is excellent, for it preserves their freshness 

 better than any other substance, without imparting either 

 the slightest colour or flavour. Both this plant and the 

 Male fern have been used in brewing. Professor Burnett 

 observes that from the analysis of the latter, made by 

 Morin, it is probable that they would form one of the 

 best substitutes for hops, as they contain both gaUic 

 acid and tannin, which are absent from most of the 

 bitter plants that have been applied to this purpose, 

 and which have failed from being unable to precipitate 

 the glutinous mucilage which renders beer made without 

 hops so liable to turn sour. 



This plant was in all probability the especial fearn 

 of our Saxon ancestors ; for although in the sixteenth 

 century several of the commoner ferns were well known 

 and described, yet this is by far the most frequent and 



