European Ferns. 
i So 
the length of the plants growing on open moorland, while the latter may be taken as the 
extreme of altitude attained by the plant in a shady situation. The base of the stipes is 
curiously flattened out, with a membranous margin, as shown in our plate. The rachis and 
stipes are pale reddish-brown when young, becoming green when mature. The leafy portion 
is delicate and membranous in a young state, and of a pale yellowish-brown hue, becoming 
leathery in texture and of a deep green when fully developed. The panicled upper or fertile 
portion is at first pale-green, becoming ultimately of a rich deep brown. “ Each short spike- 
like branch of this panicle represents one of the pinnules, the spore-cases being collected 
on it into little more or less evident nodules, and the nodules corresponding to the fascicles 
of the veins. This becomes at once evident in the case of partially transformed pinnules,” * 
one of which we figure in our plate. 
The origin of the name Osmunda , or “ Osmund Royal,” as the old writers call it, is 
involved in mystery ; numerous suggestions have indeed been made, but none carries conviction 
with it. Some see in it a reference to the god Thor, under his name Osmund or Osmunder. 
Sir J. E. Smith says it “ appears to have originated in England : Osmund, in Saxon, is the 
proper name of a man, said to mean domestic peace.” Minsheu suggests that it may have 
been so called because a decoction of it was employed for washing the mouth {ad os imin- 
dandum). Dr. Prior thinks it is a corruption of the German gross Mond-kraut , greater moonwort, 
representing its ancient officinal name Lunaria major. Wordsworth’s poetical reference to the 
plant suggests a derivation which is quite unsupported : — 
“ That tall fern 
So stately, of the queen Osmunda named ; 
Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode 
On Grasmere’s beach, than naiad by the side 
Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere, 
Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.” 
Its really noble appearance may explain the English “ King Fern,” as well as the specific 
name regalis. In some lines quoted by the eccentric author of “The Circle of the Seasons” 
from one of his imaginary works we have another form of the name : — 
“ Auld Botany Ben was wont to jog 
Through rotten slough and quagmire bog, 
Or brimful dikes and marshes dank 
Where Jack o’Lanterns play and prank, 
To seek a cryptogamic store 
Of carex, moss, and fungus hoar, 
Of ferns and brakes, and such like sights 
As tempt the scientific wights 
On winter’s day ; but most his joy 
Was finding what’s called Osman Roy.” 
Christopheriana , or Herb Christopher, another of its old names, very likely refers to its growth 
by the watersides, in which locality St. Christopher, before his conversion, was wont to perform 
his self-imposed task of carrying people across the ford. “Osmund the Waterman” — another 
* Moore’s “Nature-printed British Ferns ” (8vo. ed.), vol. ii., p. 316. 
