BRAKE, a genus of ferns of the division polypodea', distinguished by spore-cases in mar gin4.1 lines 'covered by the reflexed margin of the frond. The CouEox B. or BRACKEN (P..aquilina) is very abundant in Britain and in most parts of the continent of Europe, growing in heaths, parks, etc., often covering considerable tracts. It is a widely dis tributed plant, and is found in many parts of Asia, and in some parts of Africa. It has a long, creeping, black rhizome, or root-stock, from which grow up naked stalks of 3 to 18 in. in height; each stalk divides at top into three branches; the branches are bipinnate, the inferior pinnules pinuatitid. The root-stock, when cut across, exhibits an appearance which has been supposed to resemble a spread eagle, whence the specific mime agviliaa (Lat. aquila, an eagle). The root-stock is bitter. and has been used as a sub stitute for hops; it has also been ground. mixed with barley, and made into a wretched bread in times of distress. The plant is astringent and anthehnintic; and as such, it had at one time a high reputation, although it is now little used, at least by medical practitioners. It is employed in dressing kid and chamois leather. The ashes, con taining a large quantity of alkali, were formerly used in the manufacture of soap and of glass, so that the collecting of them for sale was a considerable resource of the poor in sonic parts of the Hebrides. B. is also employed for thatching, for littering
cattle, etc., and occasionally chopped up with straw or hay, for feeding cattle. It is a favorite covert of deer and other game. The abundance of this plant is sometimes regarded as a sign of poor land, although. probably, its absence from the richer soils i3 very much a result of cultivation. To extirpate it, nothing more is necessary than a few successive mowings of the young shoots as theyappear. The annual growth of B. is killed by the first frosts of autumn, but remains rigid and brown, still affording shelter to game, and almost as characteristic a feature in the landscape of winter as in that of summer, perhaps adding to its general desolatencss.—Pleris caudata, a large species of B. very similar to that of Europe, is one of the worst pests which the farmer has to contend with in the s, of Brazil. —Pteris esculenta, a native of New Zea land, Van Diemen's Land, etc., has a more nutritious rhizome than the common brake. See TARA FERN.—Rock B. (eryptogamma erispa or allosorus crisp us, formerly pteris erispa) is a pretty little fern, common on stony hills in the northern parts of Britain.