PEOPEETIES AND USES. 391 



In this and other countries the fronds are cut and dried, 

 and used for many domestic purposes, such as thatching, 

 and for protecting vegetables and tender plants from fi-ost, 

 and the young fronds are given to swine. The fronds are 

 burned in large heaps, and the ashes contain a considerable 

 quantity of alkali, which is made into cakes or balls, which 

 form an article of trade, especially in Wales, and are used 

 as soap in washing, it is also used by glass makers. The 

 whole plant contains a considerable amount of tannic and 

 gallic acids, and its astringency is such that in some 

 countries it is used for tanning leather. 



Many medical properties have been ascribed to it, but 

 with the exception of being used as a vermifuge its many 

 extolled virtues are now obsolete. 



It is, however, an important food fern, its creeping' 

 underground stems contain a quantity of starch and muci- 

 lage, and are used in some parts of Europe and other 

 northern countries for mixing with meal to make bread ; 

 even in the Canary Islands, especially those of Palma and 

 Gomera, where food is often scarce, it is mixed with barley 

 meal and made into a kind of gruel. Of late years it has 

 been brought into notice as a substitute for better food in 

 this country. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley, in an article in 

 the Journal of the Linnasan Society, says the roasted roots 

 are eatable, but extremely disagreeable from their slimy 

 nature and peculiar flavour, in both of which they resemble 

 ill-ripened Bringles, but by cutting up and soaking them 

 in water the slimy matter and astringent principle is got 

 rid of, and the pulp, when sufficiently dry and made into 

 cakes, forms a coarse but palatable food. 



In 1857 it was again brought into notice by Mr. Ben- 

 jamin Clark, who, in an article in Hooker's " Journal of 

 Botany," described its qualities as a vegetable, but in this 



