74 THE BRACKEN. 
fordshire, enjoined the High Sheriff to forbear burning 
the bracken. 
The bracken is also the species 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, flery 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 
