94 
ADIANTACE.®. 
occurs on every other description of soil, it avoids chalk, and 
scarcely a plant can be detected on the South downs of Sussex : 
in dry gravel it is usually present, but of small size, while in 
thick shady woods, having a moist and rich soil, it attains an enor- 
mous size, and may often be seen climbing up as it were among 
the lower branches and underwood, resting its delicate pinnules 
on the little twigs, and hanging gracefully over them ; under 
these circumstances it is a fern of exquisite beauty. 
The geographical range of the common Brakes is very exten- 
sive it is included in every European list ; it occurs also in 
Asia and Africa. The common Pteris of North America is, 
I believe, generally considered distinct : but there are so many 
points of resemblance that I am scarcely prepared to coincide 
in this decision. 
The figures of this fern invariably fail to give a correct idea 
of its appearance, from the diflSculty — almost amounting to im- 
possibility — of reducing it to the requisite size. 
The Brakes is the Filix femina of all our older authors, and 
the transfer of that name to another species was made by Lin- 
neus, who gave the plant now under consideration its present 
title : however unadvisable the change may have been at the 
time, it has been generally adopted by subsequent botanists. 
Presl, in his ^ Tentamen Pteridographiae,’^' has revised and di- 
vided the genus Pteris^ referring the present species to Bern- 
hardi’s genus Allosorus : but in this genus he has included 
species which scarcely possess a character in common ; and 
moreover, the Allosori aquilini, to which division of the genus 
the Brakes is referred, f constitute the third and not the typical 
division of the genus, which properly includes the Allosorus 
crispus, a very distinct and different plant. It therefore becomes 
necessary to institute a new genus for the reception of the AUo- 
sori aquilini of Presl, or else to restore to them their original 
generic appellation of Pteris. Not feeling competent to the 
former, I adopt the latter course, hoping that some more pro- 
found botanist will, ere long, undertake to classify the hete- 
rogeneous contents of this extensive genus. 
* Tentamen Pteridographi<e, p. 143 &c. 
f Id. p. 153. 
