10 
INTRODUCTION. 
and the harder primary rocks. The operations of human industry have greatly 
interfered with the natural distribution of Ferns in this country. They have 
been banished from our roads, corn fields, meadows, and artificial pastures ; and 
the cutting of peat, and burning of heath and furze, often check the growth of 
species fitted to thrive in places where these operations are performed. On the 
other hand, our hedge-banks, loose stone fences, old buildings, and neglected 
quarries, frequently become artificial Filicetums, by affording suitable habitats for 
several species. These remarks on the distribution of Polypodiaceae will be 
understood to apply to the island of Great Britain only. Ireland has twenty-six 
species of dorsiferous Ferns ; but of their range and distribution within that 
island little is known. All those of Ireland are natives also of England.* 
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 ;f 
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. The powdered 
rootstocks of some of them are 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 
render 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 litter, thatch, fodder, and for 
fuel.* 
IIYMENOPIIYLLACEiE. 
( Containing the Genera Hymenophyllum and Trtchomanes.) 
Trichomanoide.e, Kaulf. 
Filices desciscentes, Sprang. 
Part of Gyratae, Annulate, Polypodiaceae, Glf. i ch e n i a c f.e , 
Filices vkr.-e, IIymenophylleae, &c. of Authors. 
* A very interesting and extended paper upon the distribution of our Ferns, by Mr. 
Watson, will be found in * The Transactions of the Edinburgh Botanical Society,’ Part II. 
The above remarks, together with others of a corresponding character, inserted at other 
places, were kindly contributed to the Author, in writing, some time since. They may not 
agree, therefore, in precise words with the Edinburgh paper. 
t Professor Ilenslow was kind enough to point out , to me some time since that I had for- 
gotten the circumstance of the New Zealanders living mainly upon Fern roots. It is true 
that they do so; still Ferns arc 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 labour or expense. 
£ For the proper and modern culture of the Ferns, see the Appendix. 
