Fig. 1618. Kinds of Oak-Fern (1-3)

            I will in this chapter give you the Dryopteris of the Adversaria, then that of Dodonæus, and thirdly that of Tragus; for I take them to be different; and this last to be that figured by our author, out of Tabernamontanus.

The Description.

            1. This kind of Fern called Dryopteris, or Filix querna, hath leaves like unto the Female Fern before spoken of, but much lesser, smaller, and more finely cut or jagged, and is not above a foot high, being a very slender and delicate tender herb. The leaves are so finely jagged that in show they resemble feathers, set round about a small rib or sinew; the back side being sprinkled, not with russet or brown marks or specks, as the other Ferns are, but as it were painted with white spots or marks, not standing out of the leaves in scales, as the spots in the male Fern, but they are double in each leaf close unto the middle rib or sinew. The root is long, brown, and somewhat hairy, very like unto Polypody, but much slenderer, of a sharp and caustic taste. Rondeletius affirmed that he found the use of this deadly, being put into medicines instead of Polypody by the ignorance of some apothecaries in Dauphiné in France. Mr Goodyer hath sent me an accurate description together with a plant of this Fern which I have thought good here also to set forth.

Dryopteris pena & lobelii.

            The roots creep in the ground or mire, near the turf or upper part thereof; and fold amongst themselves, as the roots of Polypodium do, almost as big as a wheat straw, and about five, six, or seven inches long, coal black without, and white within, of a binding taste inclining to sweetness, with an innumerable company of small black fibres like hairs growing thereunto. The stalks spring from the roots in several places, in number variable, according to the length and increase of the root; I have seen small plants have but one or two, and some bigger plants have fourteen or fifteen: they have but a twofold division, the stalk growing from the root, and the nerve bearing the leaves: the stalk is about five, six, or seven inches long, no bigger than a Bennet or small grass stalk, one side flat, as are the male Ferns, the rest round, smooth, and green. The first pair of nerves grow about three inches from the root, and so do all the rest grow by couples, almost exactly one against another, in number about eight, nine, or ten couples, the longest seldom exceeding an inch in length. The leaves grow on those nerves also by couples, eight or nine couples on a nerve, without any nicks or indentures, of a yellowish green colour. This Fern may be said to be like Polypodium in his creeping root, like the male Fern in his stalk, and like the Female Fern in his nerves and leaves. I could find no seed-scales on the backsides of any of the leaves of this Fern. Many years past I found this same in a very wet moor or bog, being the land of Richard Austen, called Whitrow Moor, where peat is now digged, a mile from Petersfield in Hampshire; and this sixth of July, 1633, I digged up there many plants, and by them made this dcscription. I never found it growing in any other place: the leaves perish at winter, and grow up again very late in the spring. John Goodyer. July 6, 1633.

            2. Dodonæus thus describes his: Dryopteris (saith he) doth well resemble the male Fern, but the leaves are much smaller, and more finely cut, smooth on the foresaid, and of a yellowish green together with the stalks and middle nerves; on the back it is rough as other Ferns, and also liveth without stalk or seed. The root consists of fibres intricately folded together, of an indifferent thickness, here and there putting up new buds. This is the Adianthum of the Adversaria who affirm the use thereof to be safe, and not pernicious and deletery, as that of Dryopteris. It thus differs from the former; the leaves of this are not set directly one opposite to another, the divisions of the leaves are larger and more divided. The root is more thready, and creeps not so much as that of the former.

            3. This (which is Clusius his Filix pumila saxatilis prima, and which I take to be the Dryopteris or Filix arborea of Tragus) hath black slender long creeping roots, with few small hard hairy fibres fastened to them, of a very astringent taste: from these rise up sundry stalks a foot high, divided into certain branches of winged leaves, like to those of the female Fern, but much less, tenderer and finer cut, and having many blackish spots on their lower sides. This differs from the two former, in that the leaves are branched, which is a chief difference; and Bauhin did very well observe it, if he had as well followed it, when he divided Filix into ramosa & non ramosa.

The Place.

            It is oftentimes found in sunny places, in the valleys of mountains and little hils, and in the tops of the trunks of trees in thick woods.

The Time.

            The leaves hereof perish in winter; in the spring new come forth.

The Names.

            This is called in Latin, Querna Filix: Oribasius in his eleventh book Of Physical Collections calleth it Bryopteris, of the moss with which it is found: for, as Dioscorides writeth, it groweth in the moss of Oaks. The apothecaries in times past miscalled it by the name of Adiantum: but they did worse in putting it in compound medicines instead of Adiantum. Valerius Cordus calleth it Pteridion: in Low Dutch, Eijken varen: the Spaniards, Helecho de Roble: it is named in English, Oak-Fern, Petty-Fern; and it may most fitly be called Moss-Fern.

The Temperature & Virtues.

            A. Oak-Fern hath many tastes, it is sweet, biting, and bitter; it hath in the root a harsh or choking taste, and a mortifying quality, and therefore it taketh away hairs. Dioscorides saith further, that Oak-Fern stamped roots and all is a remedy to root up hairs, if it be applied to the body after sweating, the sweat being wiped away.