SOO FERN. 



distinguished by its continuous, linear, marginal sori, and invo- 

 lucres which open outwardly, and are formed of the inflexed 

 margin of the frond. It abounds on all our heaths and commons, 

 and is well known as forming an excellent cover for game, and 

 as useful for many economical purposes. 



Qualities and general Uses. — The young shoots of the 

 male Fern have been eaten in the same manner as asparagus. 

 The fronds, in common with those of the female Fern, afford a 

 useful thatch for outbuildings, and an excellent litter for horses 

 and cows, and a fuel for heating ovens. Gunner * informs us 

 that in Norway they are dried and steeped in hot water, and in 

 this state are used as a substitute for hay in times of scarcity ; 

 the herbage also is employed to stuff beds and mattresses. The 

 ashes of the plant, when burnt, contain a large proportion of 

 vegetable alkali, which is much used in the manufacture of 

 glass. The poorer class of people mix these ashes with water, 

 and form them into round masses, which they call fern halls, 

 which being heated in a fire are used as a ley for scouring 

 linen. Delechamp states that the people of Normandy, in times 

 of extremity, have made a kind of bread of the root ; although 

 this part is so astringent as to have been employed in dressing 

 leather. The inhabitants of Siberia use it in brewing, and it is 

 probably one of the best substitutes for hops, " as it contains 

 both gallic acid and tannin, whicli are absent from most of the 

 other bitter plants which have been proposed as surrogates, and 

 failed, from being unable to precipitate the glutinous mucilage 

 which renders unhopped beer so liable to turn sour."-|- The 

 foregoing account will apply equally well to the Brake or 

 female Fern. 



The rhizoma ]; is of a dark brown colour externally, and 

 yellowish white within. Its odour, though feeble, is nauseous, 

 and the taste is at first styptic, but soon becomes sweetish, 

 slightly aromatic, and bitter. The aqueous extract has the 

 smell and taste of the substance itself, but the alcoholic extract 

 is more bitter. According to Morin it contains a trace of 

 volatile oil, fatty oil, sugar, starch, tannin, pectine, malic and 



* Flora Norveg. P. i. p. 5. 



+ Burnett's Outlines of Botany, p. 328. 



^ In popular language the root. 



