50 The Fern Lover's Companion 



all our North American ferns. In a cross section of the 

 mature stipe superstition sees "the devil's hoof" and "King 

 Charles in the oak," and any one may see or think he 

 sees the outlines of an oak tree. It was the bracken, or 

 eagle fern, as some call it, which was supposed to bear 

 the mysterious "fern seed," but only on midsummer eve 

 (St. John's eve). 



'But on St. John's mysterious night. 

 Contest the mystic fern seed fell." 



This enabled its possessor to walk invisible. 



"\V(/ liave the recei))! for fern-seed. 

 We walk invisihle." 



Sh,a.kespeare. 



The word brake or bracken is one of the many plant 

 names from which some of our English surnames are 

 derived, as Brack, Breck, Brackenridge, etc., and fern 

 (meaning tlie bracken) is seen in Fern, Fearns, F'ernhara, 

 Fernel, Fernside, Farnsworth, etc. Also, in names of 

 places as Ferney, Ferndale, Fernwood, and others. 

 Although the bracken is coar.se and common, it makes a 

 desirable background for rockeries, or other fern mas.ses. 

 The j'oung ferns should be transplanted in early spring 

 with as much of the long, running root.stock as possible. 



Var. -pseudocaudata has longer, narrower and more dis- 

 tant pinnules, and is a common southern form. 



