64 ROYAL OR FLOWERING FEFxN. 



The plant appears in May, and is matured in August, 

 but is destroyed by the early winter frosts. 



This beautiful fern is to be found in most marshy, 

 boggy situations throughout Britain. It is extremely 

 abundant and luxuriant in some parts of Ireland, 

 and at Killarney assumes a pendulous form, fringing 

 the river between the lakes, and forming a prominent 

 feature in the lovely scenery of that district. It is 

 said that when Sir AValter Scott visited this far-famed 

 district, he appeared but little interested in the 

 scenery until coming upon the spot where the water 

 is fringed by these magnificent ferns, he exclaimed, 

 " This is worth coming to see." In the northern 

 counties of England, the Osmunda is not uncommon. 

 In the bogs of Lancashire it is frequently seen, and in 

 the southern counties it is very plentiful. Old Gerarde 

 knew of its existence near Brentwood, and when de- 

 scribing its stem, which, on being cut through, ex- 

 hibits a whitish centre, he calls it the " Heart of 

 Osmund the Waterman," referring to a tradition 

 existing, that a waterman of this name, dwelling at 

 Loch Tyne, on one occasion bravely defended his 

 family from the cruel Danes, and sheltered them 

 among the tall branches of this magnificent plant. 



The medicinal properties of the Flowering Fern are 

 extolled by old writers as having "all the virtues 

 mentioned in other ferns, and is much more effectual 

 than they both for inward and outward griefs, and 

 is accounted good in wounds, bruises, or the like. 

 The decoction to be drunk, or boiled into an ointment 

 of oil as a balsam or balm ; and so it is singular good 



