318 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, February 10,1857. 
before the daye brake; the sede was small, blacke, and 
| lyke unto Poppye. I gathered it after this maner: I 
laide siietes and wollen leaves underneath the Brahes, 
which receyved the sede that was by shakynge and 
beatynge broughte oute of the branches and leaves. 
Manye Brakes in some places bad no sede at all, but in 
other places agayne a man shall fynde sede in every 
Brake. I went aboute this busyness all figures, con- 
jurynges, sauuters, charmes, wytchcrafte, and sorseryes 
sett a syde, taking with me two or three honest men to 
bere me compauye. When 1 soughte this sede all the 
villagers aboute did shy ve with bousyers, that the people 
made there.” 
We have more fully narrated the old superstitions 
relative to “Fern seed” in Vol. XVI., pp. 324, 325, and 
we will now turn to more profitable matter—the uses to 
which Bralces are applied. These are well epitomised 
by Mr. Lightfoot as follows :— 
“ The root is viscid, nauseous, and bitterish, and, like all 
the rest of the Fern tribe, has a salt mucilaginous taste. 
It creeps under the ground in some rich soils to the depth 
of five or six feet, and is very difficult to be destroyed. 
Frequent mowing in pasture grounds, plentiful dunging in 
arable lands, but, above all, pouring urine upon it, are the 
most approved methods of killing it. It has, however, many 
good qualities to counterbalance the few bad ones. Fern 
cut while green, and left to rot upon the ground, is a good 
improver of land; for its ashes, if burnt, will yield double 
the quantity of salt that most other vegetables will. 
“Fern is also an excellent manure for Potatoes; for, if 
buried beneath their roots, it never fails to produce a good 
crop. 
“ Its use as a good litter in the stable and the fold is 
known to every farmer; as, also, that it makes a brisk fire, 
when dried, for the purposes of brewing and baking. 
“ Its astringency is so great that it is used in many places 
abroad in dressing and preparing kid and chamois leather. 
“In several places in the North the inhabitants mow it 
green, and, burning it to ashes, make those ashes up into 
balls with a little water, which they dry in the sun, and 
make use of them to wash their linen with instead of soap. 
“ In many of the Western Isles the people gain a very 
considerable profit from the sale of the ashes to soap and 
glass makers. 
“ In Glen Big, in Inverness-shire, and other places, we 
observed that the people thatched their houses with the 
stalks of this Fern, and fastened them down with ropes 
made either of Birch bark or heath. Sometimes they used 
the whole plant for the same purpose, but that does not 
make so durable a covering. 
“ Swine are fond of the roots, especially if boiled in their 
wash. 
“ In some parts of Normandy we read that the poor have 
been reduced to the miserable necessity of mixing them 
with their bread; and in Siberia and some other Northern 
countries the inhabitants brew them in their ale, mixing 
one-third of the roots to two-tliirds of malt. 
“ The ancients used the root of this Fern, and the whole 
plant, in decoctions and diet-drinks, in chronic disorders of 
all kinds, arising from obstructions of the viscera and the 
spleen. Some of the moderns have given it a high character 
in the same intentions; but it is rarely used in the present 
practice. The country people, however, still continue to 
retain some of its ancient uses, for they give the powder of 
it to destroy worms, and look upon a bed of the green plant 
as a sovereign cure for the rickets in children.” 
t 
The ancieuts were correct in their estimate of the 
fattening qualities of the Brake, and it has been proved 
in modern days. At Nettlecombe, in Somersetshire, it 
is, or was, customary to gather the young shoots of this 
Fern, and to simmer them for two hours in water. 
When cold the liquor forms a strong jelly, and is as 
effectual as Potatoes for pig food. 
Professor Sprengel recommends all Ferns, and 
especially the Brake, as a good manure. Pie says that 
10,000 parts of the fresh-gathered, air-dried herbage 
contain of mineral substances 1,040 parts silica, 433 lime, : 
152 magnesia, 1,050 potash, 370 soda, 052 alumina, 150 
oxide of iron, 036 oxide of manganese, 095 sulphuric 
acid, 060 phosphoric acid, 258 chlorine = 3,696 of 
mineral substances. This Fern, he adds, is rendered 
still more valuable as a manure by its richness in 
nitrogen. He found that 100 lbs. of its dry herbage 
contain 16-100ths of a pound of nitrogen, and, conse¬ 
quently, 3000 lb3. = 45 lbs. 
If cultivated, it must be grown in a deep, sandy soil, 
and in the shade, or the specimens will not be fine. It 
should be covered over with leaf mould every winter, for 
the roots are very liable to suffer from severe frost. To 
protect them further, and, indeed, for ornament, let the 
dead fronds remain until the spring. To propagate it, 
take up the creeping main root early in spring; have the 
ground trenched ready, draw drills about two inches 
deep, lay the roots along the drills thickly, and cover 
them with the soil. 
A Meeting of the British Pomological Society was ! 
held at the rooms, 20, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, on 
Thursday, the 5th inst., Robert Hogg, Esq., in the : 
chair. 
A communication was read from Mr. Powell, of the 
Royal Gardens, Frogmore, on the Pear Bonne tie Ma¬ 
lines, exhibited, in conjunction with Nelis d’Hiver, at 
the former Meeting of the Society, and which has always 
been considered synonymous with Nelis d’Hiver. Mr. 1 
Powell stated that the Bonne de Malines grown in the j 
Royal Gardens was received from Lord Waterpark, but j 
he had also seen the same variety at Arundel Castle and 
other places. This season it is much later than the 1 
Nelis d’Hiver, but it generally ripens before that variety 
in October. Mr. Rivers stated that he also grows a 
variety under the same name, which he received from 
the late Major Esperen, of Malines, and which is 
entirely different from either the variety grown in the 
R.oyal Gardens or the Nelis d’Hiver, as it ripens very 
late in the spring, and more generally never ripens at 
all. 
Messrs. Webber and Co., of Covent Garden, exhibited 
a basket of Blach Hamburgh Grapes in very fine condi¬ 
tion, grown in the garden of the Marquis of Hastings, 
in Norfolk. They were highly commended by the Meet¬ 
ing as remarkable specimens at this season of the year. 
Two specimens of Apples from Mr. W. Cox, of Madres 
field Court, were exhibited, one of which was stated to 
be an excellent cider and culinary Apple, which keeps 
till late in the season. It is called the Rich Apple; but 
the Meeting was of opinion that it possessed no features 
which were at all recommendable. The other, a variety 
which Mr. Cox received from Paris some years ago, is a 
large, handsome, and firm Apple, which, he says, will 
