Bracken (Pteris aquilina) or common brake or fern is a common British and almost world-wide fern found growing on heathland. Its stem is a wide- spreading underground structure, covered with fine brown hairs and giving off roots in all directions; this stem sends up each year a single leaf or frond which may vary in height from 15 centimetres to four metres according to the growing conditions. The spore cases occur in lines along the margin of the pinnae, thus distinguishing the bracken from other British ferns. Formerly the stem was eaten and the fronds used for thatching and beddingcattle. Research Bracken
Ceterach is a genus of ferns of the sub-family Polypodiaceae, chiefly known by the reticulated veins, the simple sort, with scarcely any indusium, and the abundance of chaffy scales which clothe the under surface of the leaf. One species, Ceterach officinarum (the scale-fern or miltwaste), is indigenous to Britain, and common on rocks and walls. Research Ceterach
Cicely is a popular name applied to several umbelliferous plants. Sweet cicely, or sweet chervil, is Myrrhis odordta, a plant common in Britain and in other parts of Europe. It was formerly used in medicine, and in some parts of Europe is used as an ingredient in soups, etc. It has a hollow stem about 75 cm high with fine fern-like foliage. Research Cicely
Cystopteris is the bladder-fern, a genus of polypodiaceous delicate flaccid ferns. Two are natives of Britain, Cystopteris fragilis (the brittle fern), which is common, and Cystopteris montana, which is very rare. Research Cystopteris
An epiphyte is a plant which grows and flourishes on the trunks and branches of trees, adhering to the bark, as a moss, lichen, fern, etc, but which does not, like a parasite, derive any nourishment from the plant on which it grows. Many orchidaceous plants are epiphytes. Research Epiphyte
The Ferns (Filices) are a natural order of cryptogamous or flowerless plants, forming the highest group of the acrogena or summit-growers. They are leafy plants, the leaves, or more properly fronds, arising from a rhizome or root-stock, or from a hollow arborescent trunk, and being circinate in vernation, a term descriptive of the manner in which the fronds are rolled up before they are developed in spring, having then the appearance of a bishop's crosier. On the veins of their lower surface, or their margins, the fronds bear small vessels named sporangia, containing spores. These spore-cases are arrangod in clusters, named sori, which are either naked or covered with a layer of the epidermis, which forms an involucre or indusium. When the spores germinate they produce a cellular structure of a leafy description, called the pro-embryo, or prothallus, upon which are developed organs which have received the names of antheridia and archegonia. When produced upon the prothallus these organs do not immediately give origin to a germinating spore, but from their mutual action proceeds a distinct cellular body, destined at a later period to develop into a fruit-bearing frond.
Ferns have a wide geographical range, but are most abundant in humid, temperate, and tropical regions. In the tropical forests the tree-ferns rival the palms, rising sometimes to a height of 15 or 18 metres. Ferns are very abundant as fossil plants. The earliest-known forms occur in Devonian rocks. Various systems of classification for ferns have been proposed over time. The order is usually divided into six or eight suborders or tribes distinguished by differences in the structure of the sporangium. The generic characters are founded on the position and direction of the sori and on the venation. The largest division is that of the Polypodiaceae, to which nearly all British ferns belong, such as the polypody, the lady-fern, the bracken, the hard-fern, the spleenwort, the maiden-hair, the hart's-tonguefern, etc. The royal fern, however, belongs to the Osmundaceae. A few of the ferns are used medicinally, mostly as demulcents and astringents. Some yield food. Pteris esculenta is the edible bracken of New Zealand. Research Ferns
Flowering-fern is the popular name of Osmunda regalis, a plant of the natural order Osmundaceae. It is the noblest and most striking of the British ferns, and grows in boggy places and wet margins of woods. It derives its name from the upper pinnae of the fronds being transformed into a handsome panicle covered with sporangia. Research Flowering-Fern
Abbreviations
Research Adder's-tongue
