iS6 
European Ferns. 
The Moonxvort was in old times accredited with mysterious and magical powers. Parkinson, 
writing in 1640, says : “ It hath beene formerly related by impostors and false knaves, and is 
yet believed by many, that it will loosen lockes, fetters, and shooes from those horses feete, that 
goe in the places where it groweth ; and have been so audatious to contest with those who have 
contradicted them, that they have been knowne and seene it to doe so ; but what observation 
soever such persons doe make, it is all but false suggestions and meere lyes : some alchymists 
also in former times have wonderfull extolled it to condensate or convert quicksilver into pure 
silver, but all these tales were but the breath of idleheaded persons, which divers to their cost 
and losse of time and labour have found true, and now are vanished away with them, like the 
aire or smoake therein.” The traditional power of the Moonwort over iron is well known. Cul- 
peper (ed. 1653) says: “Moonwort is an herb which they say wil open locks, and unshoo such 
horses as tread upon it ; this some laugh to scorn, and those no smal fools neither ; but country 
people that I know, cal it Unshoo the Horse ; besides I have heard commanders say, that on 
White Down in Devon-shire near Tiverton, there was found thirty hors-shoos, pulled off from 
the feet of the Earl of Essex his horses being there drawn up in a body, many of them being 
but newly shod, and no reason known, which caused much admiration ; and the herb described 
usually grows upon heaths.” Coles in his “ Adam in Eden ” says : “ It is said, yea, and believed by 
many, that moonwort will open the locks wherewith dwelling-houses are made fast, if it be put into 
the key-hole.” There is a curious passage illustrating this belief in Aubrey’s “ Natural History of 
Wiltshire ” which is worth transcribing, although of course the supposed circumstance which it 
records is, as Ray says, undoubtedly a fable. It runs as follows : — “ Sir Bennet Hoskins, Baronet, 
told me that his keeper at his parke at Morehampton, in Herefordshire, did, for experiment 
sake, drive an iron naile tlnvert the hole of the woodpecker’s nest, there being a tradition that the 
damme will bring some leafe to open it. He layed at the bottome of the tree a cleane sheet, 
and before many houres passed the naile came out, and he found a leafe lying by it on the 
sheete. Quaere the shape or figure of the leafe. They say the moonewort will doe such things. 
This experiment may easily be tryed again. As Sir Walter Raleigh saies, there are stranger 
things to be seen in the world than are between London and Stanes.” 
As might be expected, a plant of such wonderful power has not escaped the notice of the 
poets. If we may believe the Ettrick Shepherd, witches found the Moonwort of considerable 
use when preparing for their nocturnal excursions : — 
“ The first leet night, quhan the new moon set, 
Quhan all was douffe and mirk, 
We saddled our naigis wi’ the moon-fern leif, 
And rode fra Kilmenin kirk.” 
Du Bartas writes : — 
“ Horses that, feeding on the grassy hills, 
Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels, 
Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home, 
Their maister musing where their shoes be gone. 
O moonwort ! tell us where thou hid’st the smith, 
Hammer and pincers, thou unshodst them with? 
Alas ! what lock or iron engine is’t 
That can thy subtile secret strength resist, 
Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoe 
So sure, but thou so shortly cans’t undoe ! ” 
