E u rope an Ferns. 
178 
distributed in Britain, extending from the extreme south to the Hebrides and the Shetland 
Islands, although absent or unrecorded from many of the Scottish counties. It is extremely 
plentiful throughout the west of Ireland, but becomes rare on the eastern side. Mr. Newman 
speaks of its abundance in the Island of Achill, where, upon one farm, it had become established 
as a weed in the fields, being very troublesome and difficult to eradicate. “ I was amused,” 
lie says, “ to see it towering over cabbages and potatoes, and intermixed with oats and wheat.’’ 
An equally curious example of a bog plant becoming a weed struck us at Oakmere, in Cheshire, 
where we found the furrows in the oatfields round the lake full of Sundew ( Drosera 
rotundifolia). The Osmunda is widely spread throughout the continent of Europe, from 
Sweden and Russia to Spain, Italy, and Turkey. On the continent of Africa it occurs in 
Algeria, Zambesi-land, and Angola, and also in many of the African islands — as Mada- 
gascar, Bourbon and Mauritius, and the Azores. In Asia it occurs in many parts of India, 
as Bombay, in the Neilghirries, and Madras. A form, or a closely allied species ( 0 . speciosa ), 
is found in the Himalayas, and another (var. biformis ) in Japan and Hong-Kong. In 
North America, the common form has been described as a species under the name of 
O. spectabilis ; this corresponds very closely with the European plant, but is generally 
smaller ; the pinnules are also smaller in proportion and more distant ; this is found in the 
United States, as well as in Newfoundland, Labrador, and Canada : in South America it 
occurs on the Organ mountains, at an elevation of about three thousand feet, and on the banks 
of the Uruguay. 
The Flowering Fern is easily cultivated in moist places, such as by the side of a small 
stream, or by an artificial pool, and in these situations a clump of it is extremely effective ; it 
prefers a peaty soil. It has been stated that the fern may also be successfully grown in dry 
situations ; but the attempts at this mode of growth which we have seen have been by no means 
satisfactory. Those who wish to watch its development will find it easy to do this in a Wardian- 
case. Mr. Charles P. Hobkirk, of Huddersfield, has a fernery opening out of his dining-room, 
in the centre of that town, in which he has grown the Osmunda for many years ; and we are 
indebted to him for a very interesting series of specimens illustrating the gradual development 
of the plant during the first four years of its existence, from which the figures on preceding 
pages have been made. 
The numerous fronds of the Flowering Fern rise from a stout tufted caudex, which often 
developes upwards so as to resemble a trunk ; this trunk is sometimes a foot and a half or more 
in length, and the plant thus resembles a tree-fern in habit. This caudex has been employed 
in medicine, and indeed still enters into rustic practice. Gerard says, “ The roote, and especially 
the hart or middle part thereof, boiled or else stamped and taken with some kinde of liquor, 
is thought to be good for those that are wounded, dry beaten or brused, that have fallen 
from some high place : and for the same cause the Emperickes do put it in decoctions, which 
the later Phisitions do call wounde drinks : some take it to be so effectuall, and of so great 
a vertue, as that it can dissolve cluttered blood remaining in any inward part of the bodie, 
and that it also can expell or drive it out of the wound.” In the Lake district, where the 
plant is known by the name of “ Bog Onion,” the caudex is still used as an outward application 
for sprains and bruises : it is beaten and covered with cold water, and allowed to remain thus 
during the night ; in the morning a thick starchy fluid is the result, which is used to bathe the 
parts affected. This fluid was formerly used as a substitute for starch in the north of Europe. 
It is also considered a specific for rickets in children. Gerard’s description of the plant is 
sufficiently quaint to be worth extracting : — "Water Feme hath a great triangled stalke two 
