7 HE BRACKEN. 
125 
its soft crop of leaves, which softly falling soften 
in decay, and form a spongy bed of mould — there 
the Bracken revels : there its roots delightedly 
wander through the congenial soil, sending up a 
miniature forest of delicate-looking fronds, which 
wave their graceful tips underneath the larger 
forest growth which shoots up against the sunlight. 
The Bracken has a creeping root It is, in fact, 
a curious kind of root — half stem, half root — 
which crawls along horizontally underground. 
Sometimes, when attracted by soft, congenial soil, 
this root penetrates deeply into the earth. It 
has, in fact, been known to go down to as great 
a depth as fifteen feet Commonly, however, the 
depth is much less. If the top soil be sufficiently 
congenial to the plant, it contents itself with 
creeping — most extensively, however. As it creeps 
horizontally — and its vertical subterranean ad- 
vance does not interfere with its horizontal pro- 
gress — it throws up at short intervals its beautiful 
fronds, which first find their way above ground in 
spring, the time varying with the earliness or late- 
ness of the season. The creeping roots of the 
