74 THE BRACKEN. 



fordshire, enjoined the High Sheriff to forbear burning 

 the bracken. 



The bracken is also the specfes originally reputed to 

 bear the " mystic fern seed " and was called the female 

 fern. According to the legend, fern seed could be ob- 

 tained from this 



" Wondrous one-night-seeding fern " 

 only on midsummer eve. 



' But on St. John's mysterious night, 



Sacred to many a wizard spell, 

 The time when first to human sight 

 Confest, the mystic fern seed fell : 



I'll seek the shaggy, fern-clad hill 



Where time has delved a dreary dell 



Befitting best a hermit's cell ; 

 And watch 'mid murmurs muttering stern 

 The seed departing from the fern 

 Ere watchful demons can convey 

 The wonder-working charm away, 

 And tempt the blows from arm unseen 

 Should thoughts unholy intervene.'' 



At dusk the plant was supposed to put forth a small 

 blue flower which soon gave place to a shining, fiery seed 

 that ripened at midnight. If it fell from the stem of its 

 own accord and was caught in a white napkin, it was 

 supposed to confer upon its possessor the power to be- 

 come invisible. Thus one of Shakespeare's characters is 

 made to say, 



" We have the receipt for fern-seed ; 

 We walk invisible." 



For another way of obtaining fern seed, I quote an 

 ancient authority, " Although that all they that have 



