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Royal Fern | | Name : | Royal Fern | | Botanical : | Osmunda regalis | | Synonyms : | Buckhorn
Bog onion
Buckhorn male fern
Fern brake
Flowering brake
Flowering fern
Hartshorn bush
Herb Christopher
King's fern
Royal fern
Royal flowering fern
St. Christopher's herb
Water fern
| | Family : | Filices | | Parts Used : | Rootstock | | Habitat : | Grows in meadows and other moist areas, mostly in Europe, Great Britain, and Africa; a variety without hairs on the fruiting parts of the fronds grows in eastern North America. | | Description : | The rootstock is tuberous, large and lobed, densely clothed with matted fibres, often forming a trunk rising perceptibly from the ground, sometimes to the height of a foot or more. It is manyheaded and sends up tufts of fronds, the brown stems of which are cane-like, very tough and wiry, varying from 2 to 3 feet in drier situations, to from 8 to 10 feet in damp, sheltered places when very luxuriant. It is the tallest of our British ferns.
The fronds are twice pinnate, the pinnae far apart, mostly opposite, the pinnules undivided, narrow and oblong, slightly tapering to their apex, smooth, very short-stalked. When young, they are of a very delicate texture and of a reddish colour, changing afterwards to a dull green. The fronds are divided into fertile and barren. The barren fronds are entirely leafy, the fertile fronds are terminated by long, branched spikes of fructification, composed of bunches of clustered thecae or spore cases, green when young and ripening into brown, not covered by an indusium. These fertile fronds are developed in April.
This handsome Fern is easy of cultivation and hardy, and is best transplanted when large. | | Constituents : | Mucilaginous, tonic | | Uses : | A decoction of the root is of good effect in the cure of jaundice, when taken in its early stages, and for removing obstructions of the viscera. The roots may also be made into an ointment for application to wounds, bruises and dislocations, the young fronds being likewise thought 'good to be put into balms, oyls and healing plasters.' A conserve of the root was used for rickets. Gerard says, drawing his information from Dodonaeus and other older herbalists:'The root and especially the heart or middle thereof, boiled or else stamped and taken with some kinde of liquor, is thought to be good for those that are wounded, drybeaten and bruised, that have fallen from some high place.' And Culpepper says: 'This has all the virtues mentioned in the former Ferns, and is much more effectual than they, both for inward and outward griefs: and is accounted singularly good in wounds, bruises or the like: the decoction to be drunk or boiled into an ointment of oil, as a balsam or balm, and so it is singularly good against bruises and bones broken or out of joint, and gives much ease to the colic and splenetic diseases: as also for ruptures and burstings.' It has been recommended for lumbago. | | Dosage : | Collect rootstock in late spring or late summer, and dry carefully.
Infusion or decoction:use 1 heaping tsp. cut-up rootstock with 1 cup water; for infusion, steep for 30 minutes.Take 1 tbsp. per hour, or as required.To get a more gelatinous consistency, use more of the rootstock.
Tincture: a dose is from 20-40 drops. | | Myths : | The mucilaginous extract from the rhizomes have in the past been a part of the druggists' supply, but is now of doubtful value. |
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