FAMILY HERBAL. 133 



by the roots, that the seeds are less necessary ; and 

 where it is so, they are always produced more 

 sparingly. A certain quantity of every species is 

 to be kept up, but the earth is not to be over-run 

 with any. 



The roots of female fern fresh gathered, and 

 made into a decoction, are a remedy against that 

 long and flat worm in the bowels, called the tape- 

 worm ; no medicine destroys them so effectually. 



Flowering Fern. Osmunda rcgalis. 



There is something that at first sight appears 

 singular in the manner of this fern's flowering, but 

 when particularly examined, it is not different in 

 any thing material from the other. It grows three 

 feet high, and the leaves are very regularly con- 

 structed, and very beautiful ; they are composed 

 in the manner of the other ferns, each of several 

 small ones, and these are broader and bigger than in 

 any of the other kinds, not at all indented on the 

 edges ; and of a bluish green colour, and afterwards 

 yellowish. Many leaves arise from the same root, 

 but only some few of them bear seeds. These 

 principally rise about the middle, and the seeds stand 

 only on the upper part : they cover the whole 

 surface of the leaf, or nearly so in this part, and the 

 little pinnules turn round inwards, and shew their 

 backs rounded up. These are brown from being 

 covered with the seeds, and they have so different 

 an appearance from all the rest of the plant, that they 

 are called flowers. The root is long and covered 

 with fibres. The plant grows in boggy places, 

 but it is not very common wild in England. 



A decoction of the fresh roots promotes urine, 

 and opens obstructions of the liver and spleen ; it is 



