CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES. 659 



In many of the wcflern ifles the people gain a very 

 confiderable profit from the Tale of the afhes to 

 foap and glafs-makerSi 



In Gkn Elg^ in Invernefsjhire^ and other places, wc 

 obferved, that the people thatch'd their houfes 

 with the (talks of this fern, and faftened thcni 

 down with ropes made either of birch-bark or 

 heath. Sometimes they ufed the whole plant for 

 the fame purpofe, but that does not make fo 

 durable a covering* 



Swine are fond of the roots, cfpecially if boil'd in 

 their walh. 



In fome parts of Nurfnandy we read that the poof 

 have ht^n reduced to the miferable nece/fity of 

 mixing them with their bread. And m Siberia, 

 and fome other Northern countries, the inhabi- 

 tants brew them in their ale^ mixing one third of 

 the roots to two-thirds of malt. 



The ancients ufed the root of this fern, and the 

 ■whole plant, in decodlions and diet-drinks, in 

 chronic diforders of all kind^j arifing from ob- 

 flru£tions of the vifcera and the fpleen. Some 

 of the moderns have given it a high charafter 

 in the fame intentions, but it is rarely ufed ip 

 the prcfent pradice. The country people, how- 

 ever, ftill continue to retain fome of its ancient 

 vifes, for they give the powder of it to deflroy 

 worms, and look upon a bed of the green plant 

 as a fovcrcign cure for the rickets in children. 



U u 2 ASPLENIUM. 



