ign.] The Destruction of Bracken. 



569 



uplands, but by means of an extensively creeping and 

 branching rootstock or underground stem. 



Bracken occurs in many localities of Great Britain to such 

 an extent that it overruns dry upland pastures and rough 

 grazing land, and even begins to invade good grazings. In 

 many positions it largely increases the cost of planting forest 

 trees, and also reduces the rental value of sheep pastures, and 

 even of arable land. The evil is in some districts very serious in 

 character, and great difficulty has been experienced in keeping 

 the pest within bounds, while experienced farmers have failed 

 to eradicate it. So densely does it grow on occasion that 

 practically all other vegetation — at any rate, useful vegeta- 

 tion — is entirely suppressed. It is especially prevalent on 

 light sandy soils, or soils in which lime is very deficient 

 or absent. It is found high up the mountain side, in suitable 

 situations at ordinary levels, and on the sea-coast almost down 

 to high-water mark. 



In their final report the Committee of Inquiry on Grouse 

 Disease remark that : "There can, unfortunately, be no doubt 

 that bracken is spreading considerably on very many moors 

 in the south and west of Scotland, and that not much effort 

 is being made to combat this pest. Thick bracken will 

 rapidly destroy both grass and heather, but of the two it is 

 probable that the heather will be the more easily destroyed ; 

 and if bracken has once taken possession of ground for a 

 period of years it will be found, on clearing the ground by 

 regular cutting, that grass will probably come where heather 

 formerly flourished. It is a common experience when burn- 

 ing fairly old heather to find that the few bracken stems which 

 existed among the heather give rise to a much thicker crop on 

 the bare ground, and may entirely choke the fresh growth of 

 young heather." 



Method of Propagation. — Briefly, the life-history of bracken 

 is as follows : — The mature foliaceous plant produces myriads 

 of spores on the under-surface of the leaflets, each mature 

 spore being a potential parent of a bracken plant. Under 

 suitable conditions of temperature and moisture the spore 

 develops into a small, flat, green, scale-like organ called 

 the prothallus, this in due time producing male and 

 female organs, which finally give rise to a young fern 



