pasturage of swine (from _fearrh_, a pig). Matthiolus when writing
of the ferns, male and female, says, _Utriusque radice sues
pinguescunt_. In some parts of England Ferns at large are known as
"Devil's brushes"; and to bite off close to the ground the first Fern
which appears in the Spring, is said, in Cornwall, to cure toothache,
and to prevent its return during the remainder of the year.

The common Male Fern (_Filix mas_) or Shield Fern, grows
abundantly in all parts of Great Britain, and has been known from
the times of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, as a specific remedy for
intestinal worms, particularly the tape worm. For medicinal
purposes, the green part of the rhizome is kept and dried; this is then
powdered, and its oleo-resin is extracted by ether. The green fixed
oil thus obtained; which is poisonous to worms, consists of the
glycerides of filocylic and filosmylic acids, with tannin, starch,
gum, and sugar. The English oil of Male Fern is more reliable than
that which is imported from the Continent. Twenty drops made into
an emulsion with mucilage should be given every half-hour on an
empty stomach, until sixty or eighty drops have been taken. It is
imprudent to administer the full quantity in a single dose. The
treatment should be thus pursued when the vigour of the parasite has
been first reduced by a low diet for a couple of days, and is lying
within the intestines free from alimentary matter; a purgative being
said to assist the action of the plant, though it is, independently,
quite efficacious. The knowledge of this remedy had become lost,
until it was repurchased for fifteen thousand francs, in 1775, by the
French king, under the advice of his principal physicians, from
Madame Nouffer, [184] a surgeon's widow in Switzerland, who
employed it as a secret mode of cure with infallible success. Her
method consisted in giving from one to three drams of the powdered
root, after using a clyster, and following the dose up with a purge of
scammony and calomel. The rhizome should not be used medicinally
if more than a year old. A medicinal tincture (H.) is now
prepared from the root-stock with proof spirit, in the autumn
when the fronds are dying.

The young shoots and curled leaves of the Male Fern, which is
distinguished by having one main rib, are sometimes eaten like
asparagus; whilst the fronds make an excellent litter for horses and
cattle. The seed of this and some other species of Fern is so minute
(