30 
European Ferns. 
of London a few years back it was abundant, as recorded in the “ Flora of Middlesex.” The 
same form comes up frequently in hot-houses. Occasionally it develops into a large plant, while 
still retaining its juvenile characters, and then presents a very singular appearance ; in this form 
it is sometimes met with in woods, where it attracts attention by its delicate texture. Specimens 
in the Herbarium of the British Museum, collected by Mr. T. Kirk at Coventry, grew profusely 
over the floor (composed of mortar) of a deep pit excavated for a swimming bath ; in this 
situation the fronds attained four feet and upwards in length, but were unable to bear their own 
weight ; they were barren and very delicate, transparent and pale green, with broad segments : 
the rhizomes were from six to ten inches long. It is certain that the recently published new 
Scotch species, P. gracile , Paterson,'* is nothing but this, and its author has unfortunately added 
but one more to the already almost innumerable names for this species. 
The only part of Europe where the Bracken is not found is the extreme north ; in Lapland 
it does not extend beyond quite the southern part, and is there very rare. 
The Bracken has, perhaps, more claims to be considered of economic value than any other 
species of Fern, and it has certainly been employed in a variety of ways. It has been proposed 
as an article of food ; and the rhizomes of the closely-allied species or variety ( P . esculenta ) were 
formerly largely employed in New Zealand by the natives. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley obtained by 
peeling and scraping some of the rhizomes of our common Bracken a pulp, which, after careful 
washing and drying, was kneaded into a cake and baked, the result being a coarse but palatable 
food, somewhat resembling cassava - bread. In Siberia and Lapland — some say also in 
Normandy — it is sometimes mixed with bread or brewed in ale, one-third of the rhizomes 
going to two-thirds of malt in the latter case ; and in the Canary Islands also a kind of bread 
is made from the rhizome. The green fronds in the young unexpanded state are in some parts 
of England used as food for pigs, and in some parts of Wales the dry fronds are chopped up 
in winter with straw and hay and given to horses. Mr. Benjamin Clarke suggests the employment 
of the very young fronds as a substitute for asparagus. They should be cut as soon as they 
first begin to appear above the ground, and as low down as may be ; when quite blanched 
they must be boiled for an hour, or rather longer if at all tinged with green, the leafy part, 
if any be present, being in all cases rejected. A sufficient quantity of salt must be added to 
the water, so that the vegetable may gain a slightly saline taste. When at all green, the cooked 
fronds retain a somewhat harsh and herbaceous flavour, not unlike that of tea ; but this is 
hardly perceptible in the blanched fronds. They are slightly astringent, and the proposition for 
thus employing them does not appear to have been at all generally taken up. Thunberg tells 
us that in Japan the young fronds form an article of diet, and that bundles of them are exposed 
for sale in the shops during the months of April and May. The rhizome is bruised, soaked 
in water, and boiled, and though quite black, is or was formerly eaten by the poorer Japanese. 
In many parts of Great Britain the Bracken is in great request for litter for horses ; and 
in some parts of Wales it is chopped up when dry and mixed with hay or straw, and then 
given to them as food. In Scotland it is often used for thatch, the stalks being the part most 
frequently employed, being bound down with ropes of heath or birch-bark. Its use in this 
manner in England dates very far back ; in a statute of Edward the Third, dated 1349, it is 
enacted that every tiler or coverer with straw or fern shall receive threepence a day, their 
servants or knaves twopence a day, and their boys three-halfpence a day. 
The ashes of the Bracken contain a large amount of alkali, which has been turned to 
useful account in the Western Isles of Scotland, and in some of the mountainous districts of 
* “ Clydesdale Flora,” ed. 2. 
