Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

J 32 FAMILY HERBAL.
Male Fern. Filix mas.
A common weed growing at the roots of trees, and
in dry ditches. It has no stalk for bearing of
flowers, but several leaves rise together from the
root, and each of these is in itself a distinct plant.
It is two feet high, and near a foot in breadth ;
the stalk is naked for six or eight inches, and thence
is set on each side with a row of ribs or smaller
stalks, every
one of which carries a double row
of smaller leaves, with an odd one at the end ; the
whole together making up one great leaf, as in many
of the umbelliferous plants.
On the backs of these smaller leaves stand the
seeds in round clusters ; they look brown and dusty.
The root is long and thick, and the whole plant
has a disagreeable smell. The root is greatly recommended
for curing the rickets in children ;
with what success it would be hard to say.
Female Fern. Filix fcemina.
A tall and spreading plant, common on our
heaths, and called by the country people brakes.
It grows four feet high. The stalks are round,
green, and smooth : the leaves are set on each side,
and are subdivided. The whole may indeed be
properly called only one leaf as in the male fern ;
but it has more the appearance of a number because
it is so ramous. The small leaves or pinnules which
go to make up the large one, are oblong, firm, hard,
and of a deep green colour, and they are so spread
that the whole plant is often three feet wide. On
the edges of these little leaves stand the seed*
in small dusty clusters. Ihit they are not so
frequent on this as on the male fern, for nature has
e well provided for the propagation of this plant