THE BRAKE, OR BRACKED. 
Pteris aquilina — Linn.eus, 
Pteris is the Greek pteros, a feather, applied of old 
to some kind of Fern, and well applied here,— Pteris 
aquilina , the eagle feather, being doubly applicable to 
the magnificent, however common, Bracken. Bracken 
is Saxon; it is the female fern of old writers before 
Linnseus,— not to be confounded with Thelypteris , 
the Feminine Fern, nor with Pilix-fosmina, the Lady 
Fern. Pern itself is old Saxon also. The Bracken 
grows everywhere, except on chalk (possibly not get¬ 
ting depth there), and is the commonest of all onr 
Ferns. Over sandy wastes, on hedge banks, in warm 
moist lanes and woods, it grows abundantly, overtop¬ 
ping the rankest flowers, climbing among the bnshes, 
half supported by them, to a height of from a couple 
of feet to sometimes eight or ten. The caudex, thick 
and blackish, is usually creeping just beneath the sur¬ 
face more extensively than that of any other Fern ; 
but in some cases growing straight downwards to a 
great depth, Mr. Newman stating that he has found it 
