PTERIS AQUILINA. 255 
PTE'RTS AQUTLT'NA. 
WITH but two exceptions all modern botanists have 
described tbis very common Fern under the above 
names. Mr. Newman alone has called it Eitpteris, and 
Mr. Bernbardt considers it an Asplenium, but both still 
retaining the specific name (tqiiilina. This specific name 
was given by Linnaeus because, when a slanting cut 
is made through the body of the main root, the surfaces 
represent in their woody tissue a figure somewhat re- 
sembling a spread or displayed eagle. In English it 
has been called Brakes, Female Fern, Braken, Eagle 
Fern. 
Root creeping, widely extending, brown and downy 
when young, smooth and black when old. Rootlets 
fibrous and downy. Fronds produced singly along the 
root, upright, and from one to eight feet high. In one 
instance it was found thirteen feet high. Stem half its 
length without branches, angular, pale yellowish green, 
but purplish at the lower part, stiff, branched. Branches 
horizontal, spreading, with smooth stalks, the primary 
branches nearly alternate, and the next more decidedly 
alternate, the leafy portion deeply cut into close, spear- 
head-shaped, bluntish, convex, opposite segments, the 
end one usually much the largest, all smooth, and of a 
light, bright green colour on the upper surface, but 
paler and hairy underneath ; edges of the segments 
brownish, rolled back, and wavy, inclosing the fructifi- 
cation. There is a mid- vein in each segment, and this 
