Pteris. 
3i 
Wales. The dried fern is burned in large heaps, and, sufficient water having been sprinkled on 
the ashes to make them adhere together, they are rolled into round balls about two inches in 
diameter. When quite dry, they are sold at from threepence to eightpence a dozen, being used 
in wash-houses to save soap. Having been heated to a red heat, they are taken out of the fire 
and thrown into a tub of water, which soon becomes a strong lye, &nd is then fit for use. 
This method of employing the Bracken is of considerable antiquity. Parkinson, writing in 1640, 
says, “ They use in Warwickshire, above any other country in this land, insteed of sope to wash 
their clothes, to gather the female feme (for that is most frequent with them) about midsomer, 
and to make it up into good big balls, which when they will use them they burne them in the 
fire, untill it become blewish, which being then layd by, will dissolve into powder of itselfe, like 
unto lime : foure of these balls being dissolved in warme water is sufficient to wash a whole 
bucke full of cloathes.” The Bracken was called by the older writers the Female Fern, in Latin 
Filix fcemina, the Male Fern being that which still retains the title ( Aspidium Filix-mas ). The 
two are contrasted by Lyte, who says, “ There be two kindes of femes (as Dioscorides writeth) 
the male and the female.” 
The ashes of the Bracken have also been used by glassmakers. In some parts of Swit- 
zerland the alkali is obtained for commercial purposes. The fronds are cut about the end of 
June, when they have arrived at about half of their full development, as it is then that they contain 
most potash. They are allowed to become half dry, and a pit is then dug into which the fern is 
cast ; it is then burnt very slowly, care being taken to prevent a flame. A good deal of attention 
is requisite to obtain satisfactory results, but this is a point upon which experience is needed, as 
no definite rules can be laid down. When the whole is burnt, the ashes are collected, and are sold 
either in that state, or after a further preparation by which the pure salt is obtained. The plant is 
also employed in various parts of the country for thatching or as fuel, and especially in packing 
fruit for the markets, a purpose for which it seems peculiarly suited. We find mention in 
Machyn’s Diary (1552) of a man who was convicted of selling “potts of straberries, the whych the 
pott was not alff fulle, but fylled with forne,” and one of its French names is fougfre a cerises, 
in allusion to its use in packing cherries for the market ; so that the employment of Bracken 
in this capacity is both ancient and extended. The rhizomes are said to be eaten in winter by 
swine in the New Forest ; but they are considered poisonous to cattle in general, and in some 
parts of Scotland are suspected to be the cause of a disease in sheep known as the “ trembles.” 
The Bracken was in old times extensively used in medical practice, although this is scarcely 
remarkable, as every plant was accredited with numerous “ vertues ” two hundred years or so 
since. Besides its use, in common with almost all other ferns, as an anthelmintic, it was con- 
sidered to possess healing qualities ; “ the rootes,” says Parkinson, “ being bruised and boyled 
in oyle or hogs grease, maketh an oyntment very profitable to heale woundes, punctures, or 
prickles in any part.” The following “vertue,” from the same author, is somewhat amusing: — - 
“The fume of feme being burned driveth away serpents, gnats, and other noisome creatures, 
that in the fenny countries much molest both strangers and inhabitants that lye in bed in the 
night time with their faces uncovered.” Langham, in his “Garden of Health” (1633) gives 
nineteen distinct “vertues” pertaining to fern, from which we select the following, as showing the 
varied uses to which our predecessors applied the plant : — “ Nose bleeding, the roots staunch bloud, 
and heale the wound .... Chop a basket full of fearn and seeth it in a bag in the third 
part of a tun of water, and bathe therein to restore the strength of the sinews .... The 
leaves of both fearns put into bedstraw, driveth away punises [fleas], and all other such wormes 
. . . . The powder of brakes doth heale dangerous sores both of men, kine, swine, &c.” 
