BRAKE OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 59 



spreads rapidly by its underground running stems, which pro- 

 duce numerous winged herbaceous stems (called fronds in botany), 

 which vary in height from 3 to 6 feet. In autumn these are 

 cut and dried, and used for many domestic purposes. The under- 

 ground stems contain a quantity of mucilage and starch, which, 

 in some parts of Europe and Northern countries, are prepared 

 by washing and pounding, and are mixed with meal to make 

 bread in times of scarcity ; even in this country attempts have 

 several times been made to bring the plant into use as a food, 

 recently by Dr. Clark, who considered it a wholesome table 

 vegetable when young and blanched like asparagus, but its 

 daily use for a month proved it to be astringent. In the 

 southern hemisphere it is represented by wdiat some botanists 

 term a distinct species, namely, P. esculenta, which originally 

 formed a considerable article of food to the natives of Australia, 

 New Zealand, and other islands of the Pacific. The colonisation 

 of these countries and the introduction of corn and potatoes wiU 

 no doubt cause it to be discarded as an article of food. In some 

 parts of this country, especially in Wales, the fern is burnt in 

 large quantities, and the ashes, which contain a considerable 

 quantity of alkali, mixed with water and made into balls, are 

 sold in the towns as a substitute for soap, under the name of 

 ash-balls. The ashes are also used in glass - making. On 

 account of ferns not having visible flowers or seed, much super- 

 stition was attached to them by the ancients, and in Shake- 

 speare's time they were spoken of as " uncanny and evil." 

 Butler says : — 



" Fern, that vile, unuseful weed 

 That grows equivocably without seed." 



It however appears, according to Shakespeare's play of Henry 

 IV., that ferns were then considered to have seed. We read : — 



" We have the receipt of fern seed — 

 We walk invisible." 



This fern seed is supposed to become visible on St. John's 

 Eve, and it was believed to be under the special protection of 



