BOSS FERNS. 



61 



The root-stock of this fern is continually in use as an 

 anthelmintic in the cure of tape-worm. Dr. Lauder 

 Lindsay says that it is commonly used in Edinburgh and 

 other parts of Scotland ; and that in many parts of Eng- 

 land nothmg is more common as a vermifuge than from 

 half a drachm to a drachm of the powder of the root in the 

 form of an electuary, with a little treacle or jelly. 



The Male I'ern was first used at Greneva by Peschier, 

 thirty or forty years ago, in the form of an ethereal ex- 

 tract ; but it appears to have been recommended by Theo- 

 phrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen. 



In the reign of Louis XV. of Prance, one Madame 

 Noufleur sold the root of this fern as a secret specific for 

 the cure of tape-worm, which secret the king purchased 

 for a large sum of moneyj and then his physicians dis- 

 covered it to be the same remedy as that employed by 

 Galen. 



Probably the only medicinal use to which ferns are 

 applicable is that of an anthelmintic. This property seems 

 to be attributed to a large number of species in different 

 parts of the world. At the Cape of Good Hope, under 

 the name of Inlcomanlcomo, or some such barbarous ap- 

 pellation, the rhizomes of a fern are thus employed, and 

 in some parts of Asia other species have a like reputatior. 



Gunner relates that the young curled leaves, at their 

 first appearance out of the ground, are by some boiled 

 and eaten like asparagus — at least so says Lightfoot — 

 and that the poorer ^forwegians cut off those succulent 

 lamincB, like the nails of the finger, on the crown of the 

 root, which are the bases of the future stalks, and brew 

 them into beer, adding thereto a third portion of malt ; 

 and in times of great scarcity mix the same in their bread. 



One of the largest of the varieties of the Male Pern 

 is that called paleacea, in which the fronds will measure 

 12 inches across, and from 4 to 5 feet m length. The 

 stalks are densely covered with large brown scales. 



The crested form {cristata) resembles, in its branching 

 and cresting, similar varieties of other species, the ex- 

 tremity of the frond and the extremities of the side 



