Dryopteris filix-mas
HRB-0115Entry “FERN” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition
Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.
Historical correspondence. Ruled by Mercury, by Culpeper. A traditional astrological assignment, kept apart from the modern evidence; it is not a finding.
They are dangerous for women with child to meddle with, by reason they cause abortions.
Listed in the 1850 index; the herbal entry has no sentence naming this complaint. No quotation is recorded.
The green leaves eaten, purge the belly of choleric and waterish humours that trouble the stomach.
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 powder of them used in foul ulcers, dries up their malignant moisture, and causes their speedier healing.
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 roots bruised and boiled in oil, or hog’s grease, make a very profitable ointment to heal wounds, or pricks gotten in the flesh.
Nicholas Culpeper, The Complete Herbal, a new edition (London: Thomas Kelly, 1850). Project Gutenberg eBook #49513. SRC-CUL-1850
Quotations are verbatim from the 1850 text, line breaks joined. Modern research and the European regulator’s verdict on each claim are on the Concordance page, kept apart from this historical record.