74 
To-morrow eve, more stilly laid, 
My couch may be my bloody plaid, 
My vesper song, thy wail, sweet maid ! 
It will not waken me, Mary.” 
Scott’s Lady of the LaTce^ Canto III. 
Brake or Bracken. Fteris Aquilina. This Fern abounds 
on all our Commons and uncultivated ground. It affords 
the agriculturist considerable trouble to exterminate it in 
consequence of its creeping under-ground stem. It is said 
that Linnaeus, the great botanist, came from Sweden to 
England to see the Furze, among which the Brake is con- 
stantly intermingled. When the great naturalist beheld 
its bright yellow flowers covering acres of ground, he is 
described as falling down on his knees in humble adoration. 
Neither is this Fern destitute of beauty and elegance. This, 
as well as the Flowering Fern, Osmunda Begalis, resembles 
the Tree Ferns of tropical climates more than any other. 
It diminishes the barren aspect of our heath-fields and 
downs. Brake is so common that it hardly needs any 
description of its form. Suffice it to say, that it stands up 
like a tree with branches on each side, which are again and 
again divided into other branches. The leaflets are linear, 
the upper ones generally without, and the lower ones with 
deep notches on their edges. The terminal leaflet of the 
toothed pinnae has the appearance of a dagger. When the 
frond first begins to unfold itself, the stalk divides into 
three branches, and not only is the highest point of each 
branch rolled-in, but also the leaflets at their extremities. 
One of these three branches rises upwards, while the others 
spread right and left. The highest again and again branches 
according to the luxuriance of the plant. The branchlets 
of the branches are often again branched, and thus it 
becomes tripinnate. The leaflets vary. Sometimes they 
are toothed or pinnatifid, and at other times not in the least 
degree divided on their edges. They are also connected 
to the mid-rib, not by the stalk, but by their whole base. 
Hence they assume the form of a wedge. They are opposite 
below, alternate above. The veins are transparent. In the 
mid-vein are some brighter spots which appear like little 
stars, from whence issue the side-veins, which fork twice or 
