34 
European Ferns. 
its would-be possessor. Surflet says it is ripe “in the end of July,” and adds: “For to gather 
it you must cut the leafe neere unto the roote, and then hang them up in your house, spreading 
a linnen cloath under them, or else some faire, cleane white paper : I knowe well that the 
common sort doe verily thinke and averre, that this seede cannot be gathered but on the 
night of the wake of S. John in sommer, and that more is, not without great ceremonies and 
mumbling and muttering of many words betweene the teethe, which have power to drive away 
divels, which have the custodie of the same seede : but all this is nothing but fables.” 
In Russia the belief in the midsummer flowering of the fern is in full force, as may be 
seen in Prof. De Gubernatis’s “ Mythologie des Plantes.” It is said that the man who finds 
the flower will acquire boundless wisdom ; but the flower is only to be found for a single 
instant at midnight, and it is necessary to conquer the evil one himself before the blossom 
can be seen. This must be done in the following manner : on the appointed night he who 
dares to attempt the enterprise must select the particular fern which he desires to see flower, 
and must place near it the towel which he used on Easter-day. Pie must then, with a knife 
which he used on the same feast, trace a circle round the fern and round himself. At nine 
o’clock in the evening the devil will attempt to terrify the Christian, throwing at him stones, 
wood, and other heavy missiles ; but the watcher is exhorted to remain calm and to show 
no symptom of terror, as the evil one has no power to enter the magic circle traced by the 
knife. At the hour of midnight, the fern blossoms, and the flower falls upon the towel, which 
the Christian must instantly seize and conceal in his bosom. The fortunate possessor, thanks 
to this possession, will know things present and things to come, and will be able to discover 
hidden treasures or lost cattle. In illustration of this belief a story is told in Russia of a 
countryman who had lost his oxen upon the eve of St. John. In prosecuting his search for 
them, he crossed a wood, and passed close to a fern at the very moment of its flowering, and 
the blossom fell into his shoes. He immediately became acquainted with the place where 
the cattle were hidden, and, going to it, recovered them, and took them with him. The fern- 
blossom still remaining in his shoes, he became aware of a certain place where a treasure was 
hidden, and told his wife that he would go and find it. “ Change your shoes,’'’ said the good 
woman, seeing that his stockings were damp ; he unfortunately followed this advice and 
took off his shoes ; at the same moment the flower of the fern fell to the ground, and he 
forgot all about the discovery of the treasure! In another version of the same story it is 
stated that the devil, in order to deceive the peasant, offered to give his boots in exchange 
for the wretched shoes of the countryman ; the latter consented to the bargain, and, giving 
up his shoes, lost all knowledge of the treasure he was about to seek. 
It would be interesting to ascertain whether the gathering of fern-seed is still observed in any 
part of England. Brand says that at Launceston, in 1790, some rites connected with it were still 
in use, and also in Heston, in Middlesex, towards the close of the last century. The connection of 
fern-seed with Midsummer-day is to be found in the fact that June 24th is the day set apart by 
the Catholic Church for the commemoration of St. John the Baptist ; a passage in Dr. Jackson’s 
“Works” (1673) states, on the authority of “an ignorant soul,” who “had been seduced by a 
teacher of unhallowed arts, to make a dangerous experiment,” that “ the angel did foretell John 
Baptist should be born at that very instant in which the fern-seed, at other times invisible, did 
fall.” The danger of engaging in the collection of fern-seed was not trifling, if we accept as 
accurate the account of a person who went out for that purpose, and was assailed by the 
spirits, who “ whisked by his ears like bullets,” and struck him on his hat and on various parts 
of his body ; while, worse than all, he found the box, in which he thought he had secured the 
