Copy 1

A history of British ferns / By Edward Newman, F.L.S.

  • Edward Newman
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of British ferns / By Edward Newman, F.L.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bearing the leafy portion of the frond, the other its fructifica- tion: the leafy portion is pinnate, the pinnz vary in number from three to eight pairs; they are somewhat fan-shaped, with the exterior margin slightly crenate; the veins in these pinnz are branched irregularly, and extend almost to the margin, but are never united at their extremities: the fruitful branch of the rachis 1s pinnate, the pinne generally somewhat corresponding in number with those of the leafy frond: these lateral branches, or pinne, are frequently again divided, and bear a number of nearly elobular thecee, which, having attained maturity, open trans- versely, and gaping wide, allow the seeds to fall out. I have seen many singular varieties of this plant: in some of these, one, two, or three of the barren pinne have been converted into fertile ones. Three varieties are thus noticed in the English Flora. “8 has a branched stalk, bearing several leaves, and compound spikes alternately disposed ; y is a very slight variety, with more jagged leaflets than ordinary; 6 has pinnatifid leaflets, and a more spreading habit. All these varieties, and perhaps others, are found occasionally intermixed here and there with the plant in its common or proper form: but never, as far as I can learn, so numerously distinct, as to have the appearance of a different species.” It is rather amusing than instructive to read the virtues ascribed by Dioscorides, and other ancient writers, to nearly the whole family of ferns. Of the present species much has been written, and the most wonderful magical properties have been assigned to it. ‘This we may trace, in a great measure, to the singular form of the pinne; all those plants whose leaves bore even a fancied resemblance to the moon—and the name clearly implies that this was the case in the present instance—were formerly regarded with a most superstitious veneration. From all record we find that they were to be gathered by the light of the full moon, or half their powers would be lost. In the present day such fancies are entirely confined to works of the imagination. Then rapidly, with foot as light As the young musk roes, out she flew, To cull each shining leaf that grew Beneath the moonlight’s hallowing beams. Again— And the white moon-flower, as it shows On Serendib’s high crags, &c.