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240 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
which they are threaded, and then placed the pulp thus obtained 
in water. After four-and-twenty hours the water had become 
extremely slimy, and of a yellow brown. This was carefully decanted, 
and the pulp washed again with water, which was now quite 
colourless. This also was decanted, and the pulp when sufficiently 
dry was kneaded into a cake, and baked upon the hearth. The 
result was a coarse but palatable food, perfectly free from any 
disagreeable flavour : much better indeed to my taste, and probably 
not less nutritious, than Cassava bread.” 
The young fronds of P. aquilina, when sprouting, and while quite 
young and tender, have been recommended * to be used as a blanched 
vegetable like asparagus. Dr. Clarke writes :—“ The properties of 
Ferns are tonic, antibilious, and decidedly deobstruent ; and there- 
fore a Fern, if esculent, might be expected to be very serviceable as 
a change of diet to those labouring under dyspepsia and its conse- 
quences. And as we have no Fern or other allied plants in use as 
articles of food, an esculent vegetable taken from a class of plants 
so widely different from all those at present cultivated, might be 
expected to be not without its advantages. The result of my 
inquiry, which was extended over six weeks, is entirely in the 
affirmative, as far as that the young fronds when completely 
blanched are an agreeable esculent vegetable, parcels of them 
having been sent as a new unnamed vegetable to parties who have 
all of them in return sent written acknowledgments to that effect. 
The young fronds should be cut as soon as they first begin to appear 
at the surface of the ground, and as low down as may be; and 
when quite blanched boiled for one hour; but if tinged with ‘green, 
for an hour and a quarter, or an hour and a half, the leafy part in 
the latter instance being rejected ; a quantity of salt being added to 
the water sufficient to give the vegetable a slightly saline flavour. 
They however retain, when at all green, a somewhat harsh herba- 
ceous flavour, not unlike that of tea, requiring some such sauces as 
are used with asparagus to give them a palatable flavour. But this 
may be expected to disappear if the plant is cultivated or even 
partially cultivated in its native place of growth, as in some fronds 
which had become completely blanched through sand having been 
* Dr. B. Clarke, in Hooker’s Kew Journal of Botany, ix. 212. 

