TEENS OF GREAT BEITAIN. 117 



origin of the old word used by the herbalists, who relate 

 of several plants that they mundyfye the system, appa- 

 rently meaning that they give strength. Gerarde, when 

 describing the stem of this fern, which on being cut 

 through shows a whitish centre, calls this portion of the 

 plant the " Heart of Osmund the Waterman ;" a water- 

 man of this name having, according to tradition, dwelt at 

 Loch Tyne, and on one occasion, when bravely defending 

 some of his family from the cruel Danes, sheltered them 

 among the tail branches of this magnificent plant, which 

 is more like a shrubby or tree fern than any other of our 

 native species. 



The Plowering Pern is distributed more or less 

 throughout the kingdom, occurring on bog lands, on the 

 wet margins of woods, or on the hedge-bank watered by 

 a stream. It is rarely to be found in the eastern part 

 of England and Scotland, though occasionally gratifying 

 the lover of ferns by its unexpected appearance there. 

 So abundant, however, is it, and so luxuriant in its 

 growth, in many places in Devonshire and Cornwall, 

 as well as about Connaught, in Ireland, that its masses 

 form a marked feature of the scenery. It grows well, 

 too, on the bogs of Lancashire ; and sometimes its 

 towering fronds enliven even the dreary sea-coast, where 

 they thrive well on spots only just beyond the reach of 

 the wave at high tide. It generally rises to the height 

 of four or five feet, but tufts of its fronds, growing on 

 the bank of the Clyde, have been measured by bota- 

 nists, and were found to be eleven feet high. Generally 

 its taU stalk rises erect, and its panicles overtop the 

 flowers which grow beside them; but sometimes this 



