122 FERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



fruitless labour and frequent disappointment. It may 

 be, however, that now and then, as the German che- 

 mist Glauber in his ardent pursuit of alchemy dis- 

 covered the sulphate of soda, since called Glauber's salts, 

 so some unexpected good resulted from their labours. 

 Gerarde, who calls the notions prevalent in his time of 

 the magical powers of the Moonwort " drowsie dreams 

 and illusions," yet held the general opinion of its medical 

 efficacy, and its use as an application to wounds. 

 A large succulent species of Moonwort, which is abun- 

 dant in many of the southern United States of America, 

 the B. Virginicum, is boiled and eaten in Nepal, and 

 abundantly in New Zealand. Dr. Joseph Hooker, who 

 saw it in the former country, says of this fern, that its 

 distribution is most remarkable, it being found very 

 rarely indeed in Europe, and in Norway only ; while it 

 abounds not only in that part of America, but also in 

 the Andes of Mexico, in the Himalaya Mountains, 

 Austraha, and New Zealand. In Virginia it is called 

 the Rattlesnake fern, because that venomous reptile 

 shelters itself beneath the covert formed by its fronds, 

 which would therefore serve to him who wanders near 

 as an indication of the danger lurking unseen. 



The frond of our common Moonwort rises very early 

 in spring, and would not, in its young condition, sug- 

 gest the idea that it was a fern. It seems at first but an 

 upright simple stem, about an inch high, but this is in 

 fact a bud, enclosing the frond within it ; the lower part or 

 rachis of the frond, thus covered up, is thicker than the 

 upper part, and the two branches of the young frond 

 face each other, the fertile being clasped by the barren 



