PERNS ! FERNS ! ! 



3 



m extreme cases has been found in the rhizomes of a very- 

 few species. Eut for clothing or shelter, resin, gum, oil, 

 balsam, starch, dye-stuff, or any other product of the 

 vegetable world which has its use and its market, none of 

 these can be traced to ferns. Some consolation, amid 

 this dearth of uses, is afforded by a letter which appeared 

 in a popular journal of science nearly two years ago. 

 The writer says, " Doubtless many have observed, when 

 passing the shops of large fruiterers in London and else- 

 where, apples, pears, and other fruit packed in hampers 

 containing fern-leaves ; and had they but inquired why 

 these leaves in particular were used, the more intelligent 

 of the vendors would probably have told them they assisted 

 in preserving the fruit from mildew and decay. Some 

 years ago, when residing in the Isle of Man, I noticed 

 that the bracken was in large demand for packing the 

 fresh-caught herring forwarded daily by steamboats to the 

 Liverpool markets ; and more recently, during a brief 

 sojourn at Prodsham, in Cheshire, brackens were collected 

 on the Overton Hill to line the hampers of new potatoes 

 transmitted to the Manchester markets. Upon my return 

 to the north of England, in a year when the potato 

 disease was threatening the destruction of that valuable 

 esculent, the rector of a parish in my neighbourhood, at 

 imy suggestion, induced one of his farmers to ' hog ' his 

 winter potatoes on the ground where they grew, and to 

 cover them with bracken instead of the customary straw. 

 The farmer, sceptical about the result, only covered lialf 

 the ' hog ' with ferns, leaving the other half protected 

 by straw, earthing and sodding up the mound to exclude 

 rain and frost. "Winter arrived, and the ' hog ' was opened 

 for a fresh supply of tubers, when it was discovered that 

 those potatoes which had been stored in brackens were 

 sound and good, whilst those protected by straw were so 

 much decayed as to be scarcely worth the labour of re- 

 moving." And in confirmation of the testimony afforded 

 by this correspondent, Miss Grifibrd states that the country 

 people in Somersetshire thatch over their potato buries " 

 with it, saying that they keep better under it than when 



1 — 2 



