BRAKE, OR BRACKEN. 
145 
lines of spore-cases on the margins of the lobes. The 
apexes of the primary and secondary pinnae and the 
pinnatifid pinnules become less and less divided, until 
at last they end in a single lobe more or less elongate. 
The venation is very various, depending on these 
differences of development. Each pinnule has a dis¬ 
tinct midvein, producing alternate lateral veins, which 
become twice forked and extend to the margin, where 
they meet a longitudinal marginal vein, which forms 
the receptacla The indusium consists of a bleached 
membranous, fringed expansion of the upper skin of 
the fronds, which turns back so as to cover the spore- 
cases ; but there is here another membrane lying 
under the spore-cases, no doubt a similar expansion of 
the skin of the under-surface. The fronds are annual, 
but owing to their rigid texture do not easily die off 
altogether, only losing their summer verdure, stand¬ 
ing often through the winter, or until bowed by the 
weight of snow, in all their summer glory of form, 
and as gloriously beautiful in their varieties of brown 
as they were in their living greenness. 
The Bracken grows everywhere: not only through¬ 
out our own islands, but in all parts of the world, from 
Lapland (at about 67 degrees north) to the Cape of 
Good Hope. It rises above the coast-level in the 
Scottish Islands to an elevation of 2,000 feet. It is 
useful for very many purposes. In our north country 
the dried fronds make capital litter for cattle ; they 
are also an excellent elastic material for packing and 
storing fruit in, a fine covering to preserve plants from 
frost, and make good thatch, employing the stems also, 
L 
