100 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND FERNS. 



fall off. Du Bartas, in his " Divine Weekes," has a reference 

 to this reputed quality of the fern : 



" Horses that, feeding on the grassy hills, 

 Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels, 

 Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home, 

 Their maister musing where their shoes be gone. 

 O Moonwort ! tell us where thou hid'st the smith, 

 Hammer and pincers, thou unshod'st them with ? 

 Alas I what lock or iron engine is't 

 That can thy subtile secret strength resist, 

 Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoe 

 So sure, but thou so shortly can'st undoe !" 



References in the works of old writers like Coles, Parkinson, 

 Wither, and Aubrey show that this belief in its power over iron 

 was widespread. Culpeper's (1652) story of " The Earl of Essex 

 his horses" has often been quoted. They were drawn up on 

 White Down, near Tiverton, "many being newly shod," but 

 thirty "hors-shoos " were drawn from their feet, "and no reason 

 known, which caused much admiration ; and the herb described 

 usually grows upon heaths." The alchymists taught that Moon- 

 wort had also the power to convert mercury into silver. 



Moonwort appears to be the general name for this fern. 

 Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, in one of his poems alludes to 

 it as Moon Fern, a name which appears to be in use in the 

 Eastern Border country of Scotland. Lunary, a name that 

 occurs in Turner's "Herball" (1551), is a mere modification 

 of the Latin name. Culpeper says that country people call it 

 "Unshoo the Horse," and according to the English Dialect 

 Society's Glossary it is still known in West Cumberland as 

 Shoeless Horse. 



Pillwort (Pilularia globulifera). 



The Water Ferns (Hydropteridce) comprise only a small 

 number of species, closely allied to the True Ferns (Filices), 

 which grow submerged in or floating on water, and are 



