42 



A FEBN BOOK TOR EVERTBODT. 



seeds had probably lain for a lengtb of time. It con- 

 tinued to flourish so long as the butt was permitted to 

 remain, but has probably now again disappeared. By 

 such accidental circumstances may we often account for 

 many apparent errors in the stations of plants and in 

 a foot-note on the same page he informs us that " the root 

 boiled in water is very slimy, and is used in the north of 

 Europe to stiff'en linen instead of starch." 



The old herbalists held the "Water Fern, or Osmund 

 Eoyal, in great repute, for Culpepper says, " Saturn owns 

 this plant. It hath all the virtues of other ferns, is much 

 more eff'ectual than they, both for inward and outward 

 griefs, and is accounted singular good in wounds, bruises, 

 or the like. The decoction to be drank, or boiled into an 

 ointment of oil, as a balsam or balm ; and so it is sin- 

 gular good against bruises and bones broken or out of 

 joint, and giveth much ease to the colic and splenetic 

 diseases." 



The Eoyal Pern is by no means difficult of cultivation. 

 The root-stock should be dug out in the spring, just as it 

 begins to give signs of vitality, taking care not to cut it 

 up too bare, but to have it well surrounded with the 

 peaty earth in which it delights. It cannot be expected 

 that it will flourish if transplanted to a dry rock- work, or 

 be carefully bedded out with geraniums and petunias. 

 AVe have seen it live for two or three years under such 

 unnatural conditions ; but no one who is acquainted with 

 it in its " homes and haunts " would believe in its suc- 

 cessful cultivation under such unkind care. Eeside a 

 brook, or on the bank of a pond, or amongst the rock- 

 work of an artificial fountain, it will almost attain its 

 natural luxuriance. Mr. John Smith states that it may 

 be cultivated successfully in dry situations, and he has 

 had the advantage of long experience in fern cultivation ; 

 but although ^\'e have seen it tried thus " many a time 

 and oft," the result never seemed satisfactory as com- 

 pared with a moist situation, or with the fern as it 

 flourishes by the acre in congenial localities. 



A crested variety {cristafa) was described in the Gar* 



