Lesson CLXXIV

The Bracken

Leading thought—The bracken is a fern which has taken possession of the world. It is much branched and divided, and it covers the ground in masses where it grows. The edges of its pinnules are folded under to protect the spores.

Method—Bring to the schoolroom large and small specimens of the bracken, and after a study is made tell about the superstitions connected with this fern and as far as possible interest the pupils in its literature.

Observations—1. Do you find the bracken growing in the woods or open places? Do you find it in the cultivated fields? How high does it stand? Could you find the rootstock?

2. Take a bracken frond. What is its general shape? Does it remind you of an eagle with spread wings? Look at its very tip. Is it pinnate or merely lobed? Can you find a place farther down where the leaflets, or pinnules, are not joined at their bases? This is once pinnate. Look farther down and find a pinna that is lobed at the tip; at the base it has distinct pinnules. This is twice pinnate. Look at the lowest divisions of all. Can you find any part of this which is three times pinnate? Four times pinnate? Pinna means feather, pinnate therefore means feathered. If a thing is once pinnate, it means that it has divisions along each side similar to a feather; twice pinnate means that each feather has little feathers along each side; thrice pinnate means that the little feathers have similar feathers along each side, and so on.

3. Can you see if the edges of the pinnules are folded under? Lift up one of these edges and see if you can find what is growing beneath it. How do these folded margins look during August and September?

4. Cut the stem, or stipe, of a bracken across and see the figure in it. Does it look like the initial C? Or a hoof, or an oak tree, or another initial?

5. Discover, if you can, the different uses which people of other countries find for this fern.