78 
BRITISH FERNS. 
The male fern has long been esteemed as a medicinal 
plant, and in searching for the comments of old authors 
upon its virtues, of course we find a considerable mixture 
of superstitious and romantic fable. Theophrastus, Pliny, 
and Galen praise it, and Dioscorides says, “ The root of 
the male fern, being taken to the weight of half an ounce, 
with black hellebore, is an excellent vermifuge. The 
root hereof is reported to be good for them that have 
ill spleen ; and being stamped with swine’s grease and 
applied, it is a great remedy against the pricking of the 
reed.” Tragus goes deeply into the region of fable, in 
recounting the qualities of the male fern, and informs 
us that there is such an antipathy between that plant 
and the reed, that the one will not grow within sight of 
the other. In the case of ahorse that has fallen ill from 
any unknown cause (probably alluding to the then 
popular notion of animals being bewitched by the evil 
eye or otherwise), he recommends that a piece cf the 
root of the male fern be laid under its tongue, and thus 
the disease will be expelled. 
It is a matter of history, that Madame Nouffer an- 
nounced, in the reign of Louis XVI., that she had dis- 
covered a wonderful specific against tapeworm. The King 
desired to purchase her secret, which she at last yielded 
to him for the moderate price of 18,000 francs, and it 
proved to be merely the root of Filix-mas ! M. Du- 
chesne adds his testimony to the excellence of the spe- 
cific, “ Le principe actif de ia racine est la filicine. Les 
feuilles pour coussins et matelas contre le rachitisme. 
La racine tres-usitee en medecine humaine et en mede- 
cine veterinaire. En Auvergne on en fait de tres-mau- 
vais pain.” 
But the highest medal given to the Nephr odium Filix - 
