312 FLOWEEING FERN. 



V 



with some kinde of liquor, is thought to be good for those that 

 are wounded, dry-beaten and bruised ; that haue fallen from 

 some high place : and for the same cause the Empericks do 

 put it in decoctions, which the later Physitians do call wound 

 drinks : some take it to be so effectuall and of so great a vertue 

 as that it can dissolue cluttered bloud remaining in any inward 

 part of the body, and that it also can expell or driue it out by 

 the wound." — Ger. Em. p. 1133. It is not mentioned by Dr. 

 Lauder Lindsay in his paper on the " Medical Properties of 

 Ferns," published in a late number of the ' Phytologist,' (Phy- 

 tol. iv. 1062) ; but Mr. Buchanan informed me that it is col- 

 lected in Cumberland, and, under the name of ' bog onion,' is 

 extensively used as a vulnerary. This use of the fern is also 

 mentioned in the ' Phytologist,' in the Pi.eport of a meeting of 

 the Phytological Club ; where it is stated by Mr. Bywater, of 

 Coniston, that " in Westmoreland, and also the adjoining divi- 

 sion of Lancashire known as Lancashire North of the Sandl, 

 the rhizomes of Osmunda regalis are in high popular esteem 

 as a remedial agent. The plant is vulgarly known under the 

 name of ' bog onion.' It is used in the following way, as an 

 external application for bruises, sprains, &c. : — The rhizomes 

 are beaten, and being covered with ' cold spring water,' allowed 

 to macerate all night, the resulting thick starchy fluid is then 

 used to bathe the affected parts." — Pl\ytol. v. 80. 



