I NT R ODUC TION. 
XXV 
the various cereals which go to make up the staff of life — are, for the most part, in no way 
remarkable for the elegant form or beautiful colouring of their blossoms, we find, on the other 
hand, that some of the most handsome families — such as the Liliaccce, with all its wealth of 
lilies, hyacinths, and allied plants, the Bignoniacea % with its beautiful showy-flow'ered climbers, 
which form so prominent an object in the tropical forests of the Eastern Hemisphere, and the 
before-mentioned Orchidaccce — are comparatively destitute of economic properties. It would, of 
course, be easy to point out instances in which beauty of form was combined in the same 
family with great economic importance — -as, for example, in the noble tribe of palms : but to 
descend from the general to the particular, from the vegetable world at large to the small 
section of it with which we are more especially concerned, we shall find that the uses to 
which ferns have been applied, if not of notable importance in any special case, are very 
varied. Our British species, indeed, include among their number many of those to 
which real or fancied qualities and uses have been attributed ; and when we come to con- 
sider each of these in the descriptive portion of our book, we shall find that numerous, 
if not important, qualities have been ascribed to them. In the case of the Bracken 
(Ptcris aquilina ), for example, we shall find that it is, or has been, employed in all kinds 
of ways — economic, medicinal, and superstitious. The rhizome and the young fronds have 
been eaten ; alkali is obtained from its ashes ; it has been used in common with so many 
other ferns as an anthelmintic, and in many other ways more or less connected with 
medical practice ; while the “ receipt of fern-seed,” by which men were wont to “ walk 
invisible,” is or has been — for it must be confessed that such superstitious beliefs are be- 
coming very rapidly things of the past, although, like errors and fictions of greater moment, 
they certainly die hard — very generally believed in ; although nowadays most people would be 
found to agree with Chamberlain ( Henry IV., Part II., act ii., scene i) that “you are more 
indebted to the night than to fern-seed for walking invisible.” 
There is, indeed, a good deal of that kind of fiction for which the name “ folk-lore ” is 
nowadays found a convenient title, which is more or less intimately connected with ferns; 
but as this is more especially the case with reference to some of the commonest European 
species, the discussion of the subject may for the most part be more suitably referred to 
under the plants with which the traditions are more especially concerned — notably the 
Bracken, the Male Fern, the Flowering Fern, and the Moonwort. 
We hardly know enough of the popular history of ferns in extra-European countries 
to say whether as much tradition or folk-lore attaches to them ; and records of this kind 
of popular fiction are somewhat rare. We learn, however, that in New Zealand a species of 
Asplcnium (A. lucidum ) is regarded by the natives with reverence, and considered by them as a 
sacred plant. Dr. George Bennett tells us that it is used by the Tohunga or priest when he 
is praying over a sick person and endeavouring to avert the anger of the gods, to whose 
influence the illness of the individual is attributed ; he waves a frond of this fern over 
the patient, and should it happen to break, it is regarded as a fatal omen. When the 
Tohunga consults the gods, previous to engaging in any war enterprise, he also waves a 
frond of this fern whilst he offers up prayers to the spirits ; if it breaks, it is supposed 
that the gods are adverse to their engaging in war, and the enterprise is abandoned. It 
is also used by the natives as a badge of mourning : when a wife mourns for her husband, 
she sits wailing in her hut, with a frond of this fern bound as a fillet round her head; 
and a husband performs the same ceremony when he loses his wife. They are careful not 
to burn the plant. It is also employed when a chief has his hair cut : after the operation is 
g \Q 
