THE BKACKEN. 
257 
foliage of the hedge-banks, covering the hill-sides, 
on the bleak hill-tops, grow the Brakes; now 
tall and vigorous, now dwarfed and feeble: 
but whether of giant or pigmy growth, ever 
graceful. Where yonder wood has, year by year, 
for many a long year past, shed 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 growths 
which spread themselves 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, hi 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- 
