FERN LORE AND SUPERSTITIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9057, 12 October 1907, Page 3

FERN LORE AND SUPERSTITIONS.

To most of us the fern is merely a familiar plant of the wayside and the woodj and but few knew that there is associated with it a wealth of fascinating and romantic lore. In past centuries, however, when men found supernatural virtue and significance in all created things, and imagined that every plant was a remedy for some particular disease, the fern was reckoned of no little importance; and with the old herbalists, as with modern physicians, it occupied the chief place as a remedy . for certain ailments. The ill-fated husband of the unfortunate Marie Antionette paid 18.000 francs to the widow of a Swiss surgeon for the then secret remedy ; and Pliny aives the plant and its virtu res honourable mention in his "Natural History." At the present day the fern holds a prominent place in the British pharmacopoeia, for the sake of the resinous oil in. its roots, for properties of which oil are safe and reliable; and, therefore, the plant, unlike many which were celebrated in bygone centuries, and are valueless today, may be said to maintain the position which it held with the herbalists of old. The aim of philosophers and scientists of all ages has been, with the philosopher's stone, the discovery cf an elixir of life ; and its magic fluid, which conferred everlasting beauty, life and happiness upon all who d^ank thereof, was supposed to have been found in the oil of the fern. Thus runs the old legend; but of more practical value, one hopes, is the statement that, if a I bite be taken of the first fern seen in | spring, that fell disease, the toothache, will be cured for all time. I Around the moonworfc fern zn*aj£

superstitions have gathered, and it is said to have the power, if placed in the keyhole, of protecting houses against alf seeking unlawful entrance; while, for healing green and fresh wounds, and converting mercury into silver its powers were considered unique. Concerning another property which the moonwart was supposed to possess, an old authority, whom it is impossible to resist quoting entire, for the delightful quaint ness of his language, writes: — " Moonwort is an herb which will open the locks wherewith dwellinghouses are made fast, if it be nut into the keyhole ; as also that it will loosen the locks, fetters, and shoes from those j horses' feet that go upon the place where it o-roweth. This some lausrh to scorn — and tho?e no small foolts neither; but country neople that I know call it ' unshoe-the-hor^e.' Besides, I have heard commanders say that on White TVy- n. in Devonshire, ne.ar Tiverton, I there were found thirty horseshoes i pulled off from the feet of the Earl of Essex's horses bein<r then drawn up in a body, many of them being netrlv shod, and no "reason known, which caused much admiration : and the herb nsmlly grows upon heaths." ' But the miraculous oroperties of the moonwart fern are unknown nowd^Tts, as well as it« reputed power a<rain«t witchcraft and all *vil, to which the Ettrick Shepherd refers in — , The first leet night .onhan the new moon set, i Quhan air was dauffa and mirk, • "We paddled our naicris wi' the moon fern leif, j An' rode fra' Kilmenin kirk. | But not even that magical srtanza has \ kept alive the 'ainc of the moonwort The fame of the moonwort, however, was rivalled, at one time, by the bracken, which has the distinction of being mentioned in Scottish history. The " Poet King," on' ascending the Scottish Throne after his imprisonment at Windsor, made the famous vow :- -" If 1 am spared, there i~ not the wildest •■fpot where the "key shall not keep the cnstle, a"d the bracken bush the can." And the lines of Scott — Each -warrior vanished where he ftood. In broom or bracken, heath or wood, ■are sufficient •to enpurt? the braoken an abiding place in romantic literature. Dr Johrson, in that pend'rous !aaguage cf his, 'tabes that the figure see?i when the filem o-f the bracken is cut through is very like the " De'il's footprint"; but, having no genuine hoof marks at hand, we cannot corroborate this piece of information. Linnrcus, again, is raid to have found in the figure in the stem a resemblance to the heraldic sprerd-eacle, since ne grave it the name " Oquilina " ; but, notwithstanding, we prefer the^ more picturesque explanation that it represents the hoof-print of his Satanic majesty ! j