J 32 FAMILY HERBAL. 



Male Fern. Filix mas. 



A common weed growing at the roots of trees, and 

 in dry ditches. It has no stalk for bearing of 

 flowers, but several leaves rise together from the 

 root, and each of these is in itself a distinct plant. 

 It is two feet high, and near a foot in breadth ; 

 the stalk is naked for six or eight inches, and thence 

 is set on each side with a row of ribs or smaller 

 stalks, every one of which carries a double row 

 of smaller leaves, with an odd one at the end ; the 

 whole together making up one great leaf, as in many 

 of the umbelliferous plants. 



On the backs of these smaller leaves stand the 

 seeds in round clusters ; they look brown and dusty. 

 The root is long and thick, and the whole plant 

 has a disagreeable smell. The root is greatly re- 

 commended for curing the rickets in children ; 

 with what success it would be hard to say. 



Female Fern. Filix fcemina. 



A tall and spreading plant, common on our 

 heaths, and called by the country people brakes. 

 It grows four feet high. The stalks are round, 

 green, and smooth : the leaves are set on each side, 

 and are subdivided. The whole may indeed be 

 properly called only one leaf as in the male fern ; 

 but it has more the appearance of a number because 

 it is so ramous. The small leaves or pinnules which 

 go to make up the large one, are oblong, firm, hard, 

 and of a deep green colour, and they are so spread 

 that the whole plant is often three feet wide. On 

 the edges of these little leaves stand the seed* 

 in small dusty clusters. Ihit they are not so 

 frequent on this as on the male fern, for nature has 

 e<> well provided for the propagation of this plant 



