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travellers baskets of cooked Tern-root chanted, ‘^What 
shall be our food ? Shall the shell-fish and Tern-root ? 
That is the root of the earth : that is the food to satisfy a 
man.” Dr. Clarke shows that the root, if properly prepared, 
would be preferable to spinach and have a more beneficial 
effect on the digestive organs. It is however found, that 
though life may be preserved, men would not gain much 
animal strength. Pigs are fed upon the roots boiled down 
to a mucilaginous mass. The root, when cut obliquely, 
presents a kind of representation of the 
imperial eagle, and hence the name of 
jPteris Aquilina or Eagle Brake. Young 
persons, in cutting the same roots, observe 
a fanciful letter of the alphabet, which 
they take for the initial of their lady-fair. 
Nay, there is a great similitude to an oak 
tree, as appears from the woodcut annex- 
ed, made from a drawing of a section of 
the brake. Dr. Johnson, in his “Terra 
Landisfarnensis” says, “ The mark is also 
compared to the impression of the De’il’s foot.” Common 
as this Tern is, and varying as it does from most others 
in not confining itself to hedge-banks, or to the retreat 
of damp shady woods, it is possessed of some great and 
important virtues, and next to the Male Tern, is the most 
valuable of all. A tolerably pure alkali may be obtained 
from this plant. In many parts of England, the ashes 
mixed with water are formed into balls, which are afterwards 
heated in the fire, and used to make lye for scouring linen. 
Lightfoot says, “ It is an excellent manure for potatoes, and 
if buried beneath their roots, never fails to produce a good 
crop.” Where coal is scarce, it is used for heating ovens 
and for burning limestone, for it yields a very intense heat. 
It is so astringent, that it is sold in many places abroad 
for dressing chamois and leather. It is an excellent litter 
for horses and cows, and in Invernesshire the poorer 
classes thatch their houses with the leaves, which form 
a durable covering. Newman observes, “ It would appear 
* Pai’kinson says this is a fable. 
