
THE COMMON BRAKES. 239 
“root” eaten by the New Zealanders, prepared by a rough process, 
that of being roasted and pounded between stones, rejecting the 
woody portions, is the caudex of one of these plants, P. esculenta, 
which is regarded by some botanists as a mere variety of P. aquilina. 
The latter, according to Lightfoot, furnished, in times of necessity, to 
the poorer inhabitants in Normandy, an ingredient used in the com- 
position of their bread ; and in Siberia, and other northern countries, 
the stems are said to be sometimes used in brewing ale, one-third of 
the fern * root? being employed along with two-thirds of malt. Fern 
bread after all is not such despicable fare as might be supposed. 
Some years ago, Mr. Forsyth * having obtained a quantity of the 
stems, when clearing some waste ground, and observing them to be 
replete with something like pure white starch, made some experi- 
menís to ascertain their qualities ; he had them cut into short 
pieces, clean washed, and grated; the pulp after washing to free 
it of slimy matter, and after straining through a fine wire sieve, 
yielded something like coarse brown flour. When the brown outer 
coating was scraped off before grating, a clean sago-like jelly was 
obtained, and this, when boiled, had no disagreeable taste, and when 
dried was quite white. Mr. Forsyth states that beer may certainly 
be obtained from the clean washed pulp; and as by certain processes 
these waste materials might be made into bread, and assuredly 
would make good beer, he regards them as being too valuable to be 
neglected. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley has recently afforded some 
further information respecting the nutritive properties of these 
succulent stems. “Having had occasion,” he writes,t “to examine 
the rhizoma of our common Bracken, it became a matter of interest 
to ascertain what sort of food might be afforded by it. I accord- 
ingly roasted some of the rhizomata, and found them eatable, but 
extremely disagreeable from their slimy consistence and peculiar 
flavour, in both of which respects they precisely resemble ill-ripened 
Brinjals. It struck me, however, that they might afford a better 
food if the slimy matter could be removed. I accordingly scraped 
some of the rhizomata which had first been washed and peeled, 
avoiding however the two columns of hard coloured tissue with 
* Forsyth, in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1847, 189. 
+ Rev. M. J. Berkeley, in Journal of Proceedings ef Linmean, Society Y, i. 156. 


