3 ^ 
European Ferns. 
“When the fern is as high as a spoon, * 
You may sleep for an hour at noon : 
When the fern is as high as a ladle, 
You may sleep as long as you’re able: 
When the fern begins to look red, 
Then milk is good with brown bread.” 
If the rhizome of the Bracken be cut across, it will be seen to display dark irregular 
markings, which have been very differently interpreted. They have been supposed to represent 
a double-headed eagle, an interpretation which seems to have originated in Germany, and is 
of considerable antiquity; for we find in “The Pilgrimage of Pure Devotion,” one of the 
colloquies of Erasmus, a reference to an imaginary likeness of a toad in the Crapaudine, or 
Toadstone, “ even as we suppose when we cutte the fearne stalke there to be an eagle.” 
Our old herbalists also mention the resemblance. It was in allusion to this likeness that 
Linnaeus bestowed the name aquilina (from aquila, an eagle) upon the plant. Others detect 
in the markings a branching oak, which, according to some, commemorates the concealment 
of Charles II. in the oak after the battle of Worcester. A perfect representation was 
considered lucky; at least, so says a correspondent of “Notes and Queries” (ist series, vii. 
152), who gives as a piece of Surrey folklore, “Cut a fern-root slant-wise, and you’ll see a 
picture of an oak-tree : the more perfect the luckier chance for you.” A more pious, though 
equally fanciful, tradition discovers the initials “ J. C.,” standing for Jesus Christ; an idea far- 
fetched and strange enough to the minds of the nineteenth century folks, but not unreason- 
able to those who in bygone times loved to trace such analogies between the kingdom of 
grace and the kingdom of nature. The letters were, however, sometimes interpreted as 
possessing a very different signification ; in Sussex it is said that the initials of the name 
of a future husband or wife may be ascertained in this manner. In some parts of Scotland 
it is said to be the mark of “the deil’s foot/’ 
It is not often that the muse has honoured any member of the fern tribe with more 
than a passing reference ; we have, therefore, no hesitation in including in our notice of the 
Bracken the following graceful lines, addressed to it by Miss Mary Isabella Tomkins: — 
“ As a coming screen grows the Bracken green, 
Up springeth it fair and free, 
Where in many a fold, grotesque and old, 
Twineth the hawthorn tree ; 
A covert meet from the noontide heat, 
For should you steal an ear, 
You may chance discern, ’neath the spreading fern, 
The antlers of the deer. 
It boasteth a name of mystic fame, 
For who findeth its magic seed 
A witching and weirdly gift may claim 
To help him at his need : 
Unseen, unknown, he may pass alone 
Who owneth the fern-seed spell ; 
Like the viewless blast, he sweepeth past, 
And walks invisible ! 
Have ye to learn, how the Eagle fern 
Doth in its heart enshrine 
An oak-tree like that which the hunter Herne 
Haunted in days ‘ lang syne V 
