40 
BRITISH FERNS. 
and the horse restored to health. Even the homoeo¬ 
pathic Pharmacopoeia recognises the use of the infusion 
of Male Fern roots as an agent in medicine. 
Schkuhr speaks of the ashes of this fern being used 
in bleaching linen and in the manufacture of glass; 
also of an extract obtained from its roots as used for 
tanning leather. Parkinson also mentions it as form¬ 
ing an ingredient in the making of a coarse green 
glass in France and in England, in his time. In 
Norway it is employed as fodder for cattle, when dry 
as litter, and when decayed as manure. It is very 
amusing to find among old botanical writers the curious 
and often absurd uses to which they assign various 
vegetable productions; and while repudiating many 
that have been formerly received, and lamenting the 
ignorance and folly of past times, they themselves 
were perpetuating and fully believing in even greater 
absurdities. Thus Gerarde, who warns his readers 
against too ready a faith in the virtues of the Male 
Fern, asserts his own implicit belief in the marvellous 
fable of the production of the barnacle goose from 
the blossom of the trees, which overhang the water, 
being converted into sea acorns or barnacles, and then 
hatching into a white feathery goose. A species of 
Nephrodmm , growing in Russia and Tartary, and very 
nearly allied to the Nephrodium Filix Mas , is the 
Scythian or Tartarian lamb, about which so many 
wonderful tales have been told, that the world has 
doubted whether or not to credit them. Struys, who 
