FERNS. '231 



of these spots. They are a beautiful tribe ; but 

 the uses to which they are applied are not very 

 numerous. 



Several of our common kinds of fern are em- 

 ployed as firing by the poorer classes of people ; 

 who also mix the ashes with water, and form them 

 into balls, which they dry in the sun, and use 

 instead of soap for washing their linen. 



The leaves of most of the species, if cut when 

 fully grown and properly dried, make a thatch for 

 houses more durable than any sort of straw ; and 

 the root of one kind, called the Flowering Fern, 

 Osmun'da rega'lis, when boiled in water, is em- 

 ployed in the north of Europe, like starch, to stiffen 

 linen. 



Humboldt tells us, that at Santa Maria, one of 

 the Azores, almost all the plants of the fern tribe 

 assume the form and size of trees. In the time of 

 Linnaeus, botanists were acquainted with only four 

 of these arborescent species ; but five new ones 

 have been discovered in Santa Maria alone. 



In South America, also, some ferns, not unlike 

 our common Brakes or Polypody, Pte'ris aquili'na, 

 grow to such a size, that they may be compared 

 to trees; and at the southern extremity of Van 

 Diemen's Island a species has been found, whose 

 trunk is sometimes from twelve to sixteen feet 

 high : it is remarkable that no fern of this descrip- 

 Q 4 



