CHAPTER XI 
THE SPORING OF THE FERN 
“We have the receipt of fern-seed 
We walk invisible.” 
—King Henry the Fourth. 
WHEN Falstaff, of delightsome—though not of 
blessed—memory, had perpetrated a number. of 
lawless deeds, without either fear or reproach, he 
boasted that he and his cronies ‘‘had the receipt 
of fern-seed.” 
The fine dust which borders the matured fronds 
of the common bracken was supposed to confer 
magic powers upon whomsoever should gather it 
with proper ceremonies, at the stroke of twelve, on 
midsummer’s night. Chief of these, and most 
useful to gentlemen like Falstaff, with great appe- 
tites and slender purses, was the power of becom- 
ing invisible at will. 
The experience of four more centuries has 
taught us that uncriticised appropriation of other 
246 
