OSMUNDA REOALIS. 
199 
of Wight; at Sandford Bridge, uear Wareham, and at 
New Bridge, near Wimborne, in Dorset; in the New' 
Forest, and at Freemantle, near Southampton. 
In Scotland, at the head of Loeh Fine, to the north¬ 
east of Inverary, Argyleshire, and on the Dumbarton 
side, near Loch Lomond; at the side of the Loch 
at Incliuedamff, Sutherlandshire ; in Aberdeenshire, 
and on the coast of Kincardineshire. 
In Ireland, at Mucruss Abbey; at Castlebar, in Mayo, 
i.nd in Kelly’s Glen, county of Dublin. 
In Wales, near Llyn TrafFwll, in the turbary at 
Trewilmot, near Holyhead. 
The first notice of this “ flower-crowned Prince of 
British Ferns” is in the edition of Gerarde’s Herbal 
of 1597. He says, "It groweth in the midst of a bog, 
at the further end of Hampstead Heath, from London, 
at the bottome of a hill adjoyning to a small cottage, 
and in divers other places; as also upon divers bogges 
on a heath or common neere unto Bruntwood, in 
Essex, especially neere unto a place there that some 
have digged, to the end to find a nest or mine of 
gold; but the birds were over fledge, and flowne 
away, before their wings could be clipped.” 
The root of this Fern was considered by ancient phy 
sicians, “especially the heart, or middle part thereof,"as 
a powerful remedy if applied to wounds. That “ middle 
part," says Gerarde, “ hathe beeno called the heart of 
Osmund the Waterman.” 
Dodoens, in 1583, was the first to call this Fern by 
the name of Osmund; and, as Dodoens was a Fleming, 
