LASTRJEA FILIX-MAS. 
159 
on the table with bread and cheese, and a cup of the best 
beer, setting ourselves down as if we were going to eat, and 
leaving the door of the room open, we should see the 
person whom we should afterwards marry come into the 
room and drink to us.’] Torreblanca, in his Dsemonologia, 
1623, p. 150, suspects those persons of witchcraft who gather 
Iern-seed on this night: ‘Vel si reperiantur in nocte S. 
Joannis colligendo grana herb® Fcelicis, vulgo Helecho, qua 
Magi ad maleficia sua utuntur.’ 
“ A respectable countryman at Heston, in Middlesex, in¬ 
formed me in June, 1793, that, when he was a young man, 
he was often present at the ceremony of catching the Fern- 
seed at midnight on the eve of St. John Baptist. The 
attempt, he said, was often unsuccessful, for the seed was to 
fall into the plate of its own accord, and that too without 
shaking the plant. 
“ Dr. Rowe, of Launceston, informed me, Oct. 17th, 1790, 
of some rites with Fern-seed which were still observed at 
that place. ‘Fern,’ says Gerard, ‘is one of those plants 
which have their seed on ,the back of the leaf, so small as 
to escape the sight. Those who perceived that Fern was 
propagated by semination, and yet could never see the seed, 
were much at a loss for a solution of the difficulty; and, as 
wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they ascribed 
to Fern-seed many strange properties, some of which the 
rustick virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded.* This 
circumstance relative to Fern-seed is alluded to in Beaumont 
ftud Fletcher’s Fair Maid of the Inn : 
- 4 Had you Gyges’ ring ? 
Or the herb that give* Invisibility ?• 
“ Again, in Ben Jonson’s New Inn : 
-* I had 
No medicine, sir, to go invisible, 
No Fern-seed in my pocket.’ * 
* [“ Gather Fearne-sced on Midsomer Eve, and weare it about the 
continually. Also on Midsomer Day take the herb Milfoile roote before 
