BOO OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



weed," and reflects the popular belief by adding, 

 "that springs equivocally without seed." Shake- 

 speare, in his " Henry IV.," makes Gadshill exclaim, 

 "We have the receipt of fern-seed; we walk in- 

 visible ! " r Others declared that the fern brought 

 forth seed on Midsummer Eve, and then only. 

 Hence, in Browne's " Pastorals " (1614) we read of 

 "the wondrous one-night-seeding Feme. Those 

 who would gather fern-seed had need possess not 

 only much faith, for that is essential, but also not 

 a little patience. The fern resolutely declined to 

 yield to any violence, no shaking or squeezing 

 was permissible, but if the would-be possessor liked 

 at the solemn hour of midnight to kneel before 

 the plant and hold out a white basin, perhaps the 

 fern might of its own free-will let fall into it 

 some of this precious seed. One is scarcely sur- 

 prised to find that those thus seeking the gift of 

 invisibility were strongly suspected of malpractices 

 and witchcraft and laid themselves open to the fate 

 of those who were held to be professors of the 

 Black Art. Andrew Marvell tells us 



a Of the witch that midnight wakes 

 For the fern, whose magic weed 

 In one moment casts the seed, 

 And invisible her makes." 



1 "I had 



No medicine, Sir, to go invisible, 

 No fern seed in my pocket." 



BEN JONSON. 



