Female ferns (Polypodium vulgare), grow in chalky soils. They prefer shady and semi-shaded areas. Look for them in the cracks in walls and rocks or at the base of trees, around fallen trees, and tree stumps. In North America, these ferns are very common in the Pacific Northwest. There are many names for the female fern: polypody of the oak, wall fern, brake root, rock brake, oak fern, brake fern, brakeroot, common polypody, fern brake, fern root, rock polypody, and stone brake are the ones we see and hear most frequently. (1)
| It is under the dominion of Mercury, both Male and Female. The roots of both these sorts of Fern being bruised and boiled in Mead, or honeyed water, and drank, kills both the broad and long worms in the body, and abates the swelling and hardness of the spleen. The green leaves eaten, purge the belly of choleric and waterish humours that trouble the stomach. They are dangerous for women with child to meddle with, by reason they cause abortions. The roots bruised and boiled in oil, or hog's grease, make a very profitable ointment to heal wounds, or pricks gotten in the flesh. The powder of them used in foul ulcers, dries up their malignant moisture, and causes their speedier healing. Fern being burned, the smoke thereof drives away serpents, gnats, and other noisome creatures, which in fenny countries do in the night time, trouble and molest people lying in their beds with their faces uncovered; it causes barrenness. (The Complete Herbal by Nicolas Culpeper) |
| The common Polypody Fern, or "rheum-purging Polypody" grows plentifully in this country on old walls and stumps of trees, in shady places. In Hampshire it is called "Adder's Tongue," as derived from the word attor, poison; also Wall-fern, and formerly in Anglo-Saxon Ever-fern, or Boar-fern. In Germany it is said to have sprung from the Virgin's milk, and is named Marie bregue. The fresh root has been used successfully in decoction, or powdered, for melancholia; [190] also of late for general rheumatic swelling of the joints. By the ancients it was employed as a purgative. Six drachms by weight of the root should be infused for two hours in a pint of boiling water, and given in two doses. ...Dioscorides said, "The root of Polypody is very good for chaps between the fingers." "It serveth," writes Gerard, "to make the belly soluble, being boiled in the broth of an old cock, with beets or mallows, or other like things, that move to the stool by their slipperiness." Parkinson says: "A dram or two, it need be, of the powdered dry roots taken fasting, in a cupful of honeyed water, worketh gently as a purge, being a safe medicine, fit for all persons and seasons, which daily experience confirmeth." "Applied also to the nose it cureth the disease called polypus, which by time and sufferance stoppeth the nostrils." The leaves of the Polypody when burnt furnish a large proportion of carbonate of Potash. (Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William Thomas Fernie) |
| Eyes that are blood-shot or become blind for some days are cured here by applying some blades of the plant fern, and the yellow is by them reckoned best; this they mix with the white of an egg, and lay it on some coarse flax – and the egg next to the face and brows, and the patient is ordered to lie on his back. (A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, by Martin Martin) |
The common Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) or Shield Fern, is found widely in Europe, Asia, and North America. Both Theophrastus and Dioscorides specifically recommended Male Fern to eliminate worms, especially tape-worms, from the system.
| " Bracken is also named botanically, Pteris aquilina, because the figure which appears in its succulent stem when cut obliquely across at the base, has been thought to resemble a spread eagle; and, therefore, Linnaeus termed the Fern Aquilina. Some call it, for the same reason, "King Charles in the oak tree"; and in Scotland the symbol is said to be an impression of the Devil's foot. [185] Again, witches are reputed to detest this Fern, since it bears on its cut root the Greek letter X, which is the initial of Christos. In Ireland it is called the Fern of God, because of the belief that if the stem be cut into three sections, on the first of these will be seen the letter G; on the second O; and on the third D. An old popular proverb says about this Bracken:-- "When the Fern is as high as a spoon You may sleep an hour at noon, When the Fern is as high as a ladle You may sleep as long as you're able, When the Fern is looking red Milk is good with faire brown bread." (Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William Thomas Fernie) |
| The Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), grows abundantly in many parts of Great Britain, and is the stateliest of Ferns in its favourite watery haunts. It heeds a soil of bog earth, and is incorrectly styled "the flowering Fern," from its handsome spikes of fructification. One of its old English names is "Osmund, the Waterman"; and the white centre of its root has been called the heart of Osmund. This middle part boiled in some kind of liquor was supposed good for persons wounded, dry-beaten, and bruised, or that have fallen from some high place. The name "Osmund" is thought to be derived from os, the mouth, or os, bone, and mundare, to cleanse, or from gross mond kraut, the Greater Moonwort; but others refer it to Saint Osmund wading a river, whilst bearing the Christ on his shoulders. The root or rhizome has a mucilaginous slightly bitter taste. The tender sprigs of the plant at their first coming are "good to be put into balmes, oyles, and healing plasters." Dodonoeus says,"the harte of the root of Osmonde is good against squattes, and bruises, heavie and grievous falles, and whatever hurte or dislocation soever it be." "A conserve of these buds," said Dr. Short of Sheffield, 1746, "is a specific in the rickets; and the roots stamped in water or gin till the liquor becometh a stiff mucilage, has cured many most deplorable pains of the back, that have confined the distracted sufferers close to bed for several weeks." This mucilage was to be rubbed over the vertebrae of the back each night and morning for five or six days together. Also for rickets, "take of the powdered roots with the whitest sugar, and sprinkle some thereof on the child's pap, and on all his liquid foods." "It maketh a noble remedy," said Dr. Bowles, "without any other medicine." The actual curative virtues of this Fern are most probably due to the salts of lime, potash, and other earths, which it derives in solution from the bog soil, and from the water in which it grows. On July 25th it is specially dedicated to St. Christopher, its patron saint. (Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William Thomas Fernie) |
| The Hart's Tongue or Hind's Tongue, is a Fern of common English growth in shady copses on moist banks, it being the Lingua cervina of the apothecaries, and its name expressing the shape of its fronds. This, the Scolopendrium vulgare, is also named "Button-hole," "Horse tongue;" and in the Channel Islands "Godshair." The older physicians esteemed it as a very valuable medicine; and Galen gave it for diarrhoea or dysentery. By reason of its tannin it will restrain bleedings, "being commended," says Gerard, "against the bloody flux." People in rural districts make an ointment from its leaves for burns and scalds. It was formerly, in company with the common Maidenhair Fern, one of the five great capillary herbs. Dr. Tuthill Massy advises the drinking, in Bright's disease, of as much as three [188] half-pints daily of an infusion of this Fern, whilst always taking care to gather the young shoots. Also, in combination (H.) with the American Golden Seal (Hydrastis canadensis). the Hart's Tongue has served in not a few authenticated cases to arrest the progress of that formidable disease, diabetes mellitus. Its distilled water will quiet any palpitations of the heart, and will stay the hiccough; it will likewise help the falling of the palate (relaxed throat), or stop bleeding of the gums if the mouth be gargled therewith. (Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William Thomas Fernie) |
Asplenium Trichomanes, the Common Maidenhair Fern is a very attractive plant that is often grown as an ornamental, both indoors and out. It is a hardy fern with a wiry stem, which often remains in place after the pinnae (leaves) have fallen. It grows naturally worldwide, even in such inhospitable climates as Greenland. The round leaves grow in pairs along the wiry rib, giving this fern a delicate charm.| ...common Maidenhair (Asplenium trichomanes), which grows on old walls, and which will act as a laxative medicine; whilst idiots are said to have taken it remedially, so as to recover their senses ... a tea brewed from our more common Maidenhair will answer the same purpose for tedious coughs. Its leaves are sweet, mucilaginous, and expectorant, being, therefore, highly useful in many pulmonary disorders. (Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William Thomas Fernie) |
| Hartstongue and maidenhair boiled in [water?] and the ale drunk is used for coughs and consumptions. (A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, by Martin Martin) |
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