PERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 125 



fathers called it Adder's-tongue, or Adder's-spear, for, 

 like the reptile after which it was named, it was believed 

 to have great power for evil, and not only to destroy the 

 grass among which it grew, but to injure the cattle which 

 fed upon it. The plant was, however, prized as a reme- 

 dial agent by the old herbahsts. Gerarde said of it, 

 that it would, when boiled in olive oil, afford " a most 

 excellent greene oyle, or rather a balsam for greene 

 wounds, comparable to oyle of St. John's wort, if it 

 doth not far surpasse it ; whose beauty is such that very 

 many artists thought the same to be mixed with verdi- 

 grease." No doubt many of the vegetable remedies for 

 wounds were rendered serviceable by the oil with which 

 the juices were so frequently mingled. A preparation, 

 called the " green oil of Charity," is in some counties 

 still deemed a panacea; and Adder's-spear ointment, 

 made of our fern, mingled with plantain and other 

 herbs, is in much use in villages, and its green leaves 

 are yet laid on wounds to heal them, serving doubt- 

 less to cool the inflammation, and also to unite the 

 edges of a wound inflicted by a sharp instrument. 

 Culpepper praises the juice of the leaves mingled with 

 the distilled water of Horse-tail, as a " singular remedy" 

 for internal wounds. Large quantities of the plant are 

 gathered in some villages of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, 

 and prepared according to the old prescriptions. The 

 barren frond of the Adder's-tongue is often forked, or 

 even deeply lobed at the extremity, and sometimes two 

 or three spikes of fructification may be seen on one 

 plant ; but, excepting in luxuriance of growth, the fern 

 exhibits little variation. The French call the plant 



