43 
European Ferns. 
which are both numerous and varied : “ it is pulmonic, lithontriptic . . . wonderfully helps those 
afflicted with asthmas, shortness of breath, and coughs ... It is also good against jaundice, 
dropsy, and the bitings of mad dogs.” It is stated that the fern was exported in large quantities 
to London from Ireland in the middle of the last century: and it is on record that two hogsheads 
were so sent by one person from the Isles of Arran, where the fern is very abundant in the deep 
clefts of the rocks, being known to the natives as dubh-chosach, or “ black-footed.” 
In North America the beautiful Adiantum pcdatum, to which reference has already been 
made, is employed more extensively in a similar manner, and is often substituted for the true 
Maidenhair. Its chief use is as a refrigerant drink in febrile diseases and in erysipelas ; and its 
expectorant and subastringent properties render it also useful in coughs and asthma. The plant 
is highly valued by some American practitioners, and its properties are at any rate of sufficient 
importance to demand further investigation. It is said that its substitution in France for the 
true Maidenhair arose from the circumstance that the French Canadians sent over large quantities 
to France as a package for goods: its similarity to the true Maidenhair arrested attention, and 
it was ultimately used instead of it. According to Kalm, A. pedatam has been employed from 
time immemorial by the North American Indians in cases of difficulty of breathing. In some 
parts of Brazil another species, A. dolabriforme , bearing the vernacular name of Venca, is used in 
pectoral complaints. The fronds of A. melanocaulon are believed to be tonic in India. 
The “vertues” of Maidenhair, according to old writers, were both numerous and varied. 
Many are set forward in Langham’s “ Guide of Health ” — a black-letter seventeenth-century volume 
— and of these the following are samples: — “Seethe it in wine, and drinke it for shortnesse and 
straitnesse of breath, the hard and uneasie cough, and to cause easie spitting. . . . Bitings 
of mad dogges and venomous beasts, stampe it greene and apply it. It restoreth haire, dispatcheth 
the strume or swellings in children’s throats. . . . Headach, weare a garland of it, or a 
quilted cap of it about the head. . . . Given in meat to quails, it maketh them to fight well : ” 
and so on. The property last referred to is similar to one mentioned by Pliny as belonging to his 
“ adiantum,” which, as we have already said, is perhaps an altogether different plant. He says: 
“ It is a general belief that partridges and cocks are rendered more pugnacious if this plant is 
mixed with their food.” Langham’s list of “vertues,” however, pales before that set forward by 
one Peter Formius in a small French treatise devoted to the plant, which was published in 1644. 
Our illustrious countryman, John Ray, condenses his account in the “ Historia Plantarum,” and 
remarks that, if all these virtues existed in the Maidenhair, it might indeed be looked upon as 
a panacea for every disease, being in itself sufficient to cure any disorder, no matter of what kind, 
and regardless of the part of the body affected. He, however, proposes a drink to be made from 
it, which he suggests might be efficaciously employed in fevers and similar cases. For this 
about three handfuls of the recently collected leaves should be placed in warm or gently boiling 
water, and allowed to remain for the space of one night. It is said that a strong decoc- 
tion will act as an emetic. Ray also tells us that in the neighbourhood of Narbonne the 
growth of Maidenhair about the wells and fountains is looked upon as a sure sign of the purity 
and sweetness of the water yielded by them. According to Pereira, other ferns, besides 
those already named, have been employed under the name of Maidenhair, especially the 
Black Maidenhair Splecnwort ( Asplcnium A dianlum-nigrum), the Wall Rue (A. Rut a-mur aria), 
the Scaly Splecnwort (Cetcrach officinarum) , and the Hart’s-tongue (Scolopendrium vulgare). 
The name Adiantum is derived, as Pliny tells us, from the Greek a (not) and hiaivw (to wet), 
because, he says, “when sprinkled with water or dipped in it, it has all the appearance of having 
been dried, so great is its antipathy to moisture.” His description, however, is hardly appropriate 
