XXVI 
European Ferns. 
performed, he holds a frond in his hand ; meanwhile the priest prays over him, taking the 
frond and shaking jt ; after which it is dipped in water and shaken over the chief ; if it 
breaks, it is regarded as a sign that he will not live long; if one of the leaflets should 
break off, it is regarded as an omen that one of his family will soon die ; but should the 
frond remain entire during the ceremony, it is considered as an indication of health, success, 
and long life. 
Our common Male Fern ( Aspidium Filix-mas) has really some claims to be considered of 
importance from an economic point of view, inasmuch as it finds a place in the British 
Pharmacopoeia. There seems to be no doubt that this fern has been very efficaciously 
employed in the treatment of tape-worm, a use for which it has been in repute since the 
days of Dioscorides. From time to time the Male Fern has been the principal ingredient in 
certain important medicines which had attained great celebrity as vermifuges; and, as we 
shall see further on, the secret of these medicines has been purchased at a high price by 
more than one European sovereign, presumably with the intention of promulgating so 
wonderful a remedy among their subjects. The Polypody (. Polypodium vulgare ) was formerly 
employed as a purgative, and also in cases of coughs and pectoral affections ; and in 
country places is, or was until lately, used as a remedy in cases of whooping-cough. In the 
curious old names Miltwaste and Tentwort, for Ceterach officinanim and Asplenium R uta-viurana 
respectively, may be found indications of the disorders in which they were supposed to be 
efficacious. The former was thought to be a cure for the “swelling of the spleen,” to 
which we also owe the common name Spleenwort, now usually applied to the Aspleniums : 
while the latter was so called from its employment in cases of rickets — a disease formerly 
known as “ the taint.” For this complaint the Royal Fern ( Osmunda regalis) is still a 
popular remedy in some parts of Cumberland. In Westmeath the Hart’s Tongue 
( Scolopendrium vulgare) is employed as a popular remedy for burns. The Adder’s Tongue 
( OpJiioglossum vulgatum) was collected until quite recently for use in making a healing 
ointment called Adder’s Spear Ointment — a practice which probably still lingers in country 
districts, where herbs are frequently employed as remedial agents, and it must be ad- 
mitted sometimes with signal success. Indeed, a little inquiry in a rural district will 
usually bring to light some herb-remedy which has been handed down from a remote 
period, and still holds its own among a rural population. We were much struck a few 
years since at finding an ointment made from the Clown’s Woundwort ( Stachys palustris) 
employed by a village woman in Buckinghamshire with very satisfactory results. Gerard, 
who gave the plant its English name, tells us he did so because of “a clownish answer” 
which he received from “ a very poore man,” who had cut his leg to the bone and healed 
it with this plant. Gerard tells us he “ offered to heale the same for charitie, which he 
refused, saying that I coulde not heale it so well as himselfe.” The Comfrey (Symphytum 
officinale ) is another common British plant which undoubtedly possesses the healing and 
consolidating properties to which it owes its old names of Consound, Knitback, Bruisewort, and 
others. Gerard, indeed, says that the roots “ are so glutcnative that they will sodder or glew 
together meat that is chopt in pieces seething in a pot ;” but whether this be the case or not, 
it is certain that some fifty years since a Mr. Rootsey published an account of a workman who 
had broken his leg, and who, after four years’ confinement to his room, was healed by the 
application of Comfrey as a poultice ; splinters of bone were brought away, and in a few weeks 
he was able to walk. Mr. Oswald Cockayne, in the interesting preface to his “Saxon Leechdoms,” 
gives another instance of the beneficial employment of Comfrey. He says, “ Perhaps herbs 
