INTRODUCTION. 
9 
VIRTUES. — The uses of the Ferns are not very conspicuous. Their bitter 
principle renders them unpalatable to all creatures. Neither men nor brutes 
employ any species as an article of food, unless driven by the necessity of 
hunger ; * and even the little insects that infest herbaria refuse to prey upon 
them. They are not, however, wholly useless, either in medicine or the arts. 
Their nauseous taste renders them efficacious in expelling intestinal worms ; 
some of them have been used as a substitute for hops in brewing, and with better 
success than most other plants, on account of the tannin and gallic acid they 
contain, precipitating the feculent matter in the wort. The same constituent 
principles renders them also serviceable in preparing kid and other light leathers, 
and when burnt they yield much comparatively pure potass. The dried fronds of 
the common brakes are valuable to pack fruit in, and as they retain moisture less, 
are much better than straw to shield garden plants from frost. Except for these 
uses, the Ferns have been but little employed, unless, indeed, for those purposes to 
which most plants when dry are available, namely, for thatch, for fodder, and 
for fuel.f 
IIYMENOPHYLLACEyE. 
f Containing the Genera Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes.) 
Trichomanoideye, Kaulf.; — Filices desciscentes, Spreng.; — Part of 
Gyrataj, Annulate, Polypodiaceae, Gleicheniaceas, Filices ver*, 
HYMENOPHYLLEyE, &c. of Authors. 
STRUCTURE. — The plants contained in this order long maintained a 
situation among the dorsal Ferns, though improperly, because their fruit is not 
dorsal but marginal, growing in a distinct and differently organised receptacle. 
The annulus corresponds in its functions, jointed appearance, and elasticity, to 
those of the last order, except that instead of its being a continuation of the 
foot-stalk of the theca, it is placed obliquely or transversely, and of consequence 
the theca bursts vertically. For this reason, Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes 
form an order separate from the Polypodiacese. Besides the difference in the fruit, 
the texture of the leaves is much more cellular than in the last order. The stem 
of each native genus is quite smooth and round, and contains but one bundle of 
spiral vessels ; this is solid and forms an axis. The thecas arise from the veins 
* Professor Henslow was kind enough to point out to me some time siuce that I had forgotten 
the circumstance of the New Zealanders living mainly upon Fern roots. It is true that they do 
so ; still Ferns are a sorry food, and now that the colonists have taught the natives the art of 
cultivation, Fern roots are becoming less and less an article of consumption. That hunger 
alone induced the islanders to use these roots as food, may be inferred from the circumstance, 
that they were ready enough to work for the first settlers merely to be supplied with the 
commonest European grain or pulse, though the Fern grew abundantly on every side, and might 
have been procured and prepared comparatively without labor or expense. 
t For the proper and modern culture of the Ferns, see the Appendix. 
C 
