THE FERN BULLETIN 



75 



discovered the female fern-seed." This is all very 

 puzzling to an age which has lost, almost entirely, the 

 amazing traditions and superstitions which were cur- 

 rent in the Middle Ages concerning every plant, stone, 

 and animal. These traditions were dressed up, per- 

 verted, and confused survivals of the still earlier be- 

 liefs of innocent country-folk throughout primitive and 

 prehistoric Europe and the East, some of them 'based 

 on real experience and fact, others purely fanciful, or 

 the outcome of a primitive system of magic and 

 witchcraft. 



The puzzling thing to the modern man about the 

 fern-seed tradition, namely, that the seed of the fern 

 is invisible, and confers invisibly upon whomsoever 

 may gain possession of some of it, and carry it in his 

 pocket, is that so far is fern-seed from being invisible 

 that every schoolboy and schoolgirl knows the spore- 

 cases of the fern, the little brown circular or oblong 

 patches which appear on the back of the fern-leaf or 

 frond when mature. These certainly have the appear- 

 ance of being "seeds," that is to say, reproductive par- 

 ticles to be shed by the fern, which, as a matter of fact, 

 they are (though not seeds in the strictly botanical 

 sense), and it is astonishing that they were not recog- 

 nised by our forefathers. 



It is difficult at the present day to come across any- 

 one who knows or has heard of "fern-seed" and its 

 marvellous properties. Yet it was a belief of the an- 

 cient inhabitants of Britain and of the French Bre- 

 tagne, which they colonised, that anyone who could 

 obtain possession of some "fern-seed" would become 

 invisible and receive knowledge of all secrets. The 

 belief was widely spread in this country throughout 

 mediaeval times, and persisted till the end of the 

 eighteenth century. As late as 179 3 a respectable 



