Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies: Botrychium lunaria, Moonwort
Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies: Botrychium lunaria, Moonwort
Moonwort is a fern associated with much folklore and magic. It was once even used by alchemists in attempting to turn mercury into silver. This was also the fern mentioned earlier that was believed to have the power of opening locks and causing horses to throw shoes.
Gerard described Moonwort along with two herbs he considered to be similar:
1. Herb Paris riseth up with one small tender stalk two hands high; at the very top whereof come forth four leaves directly set one against another in manner of a Burgundian cross or true-love knot: for which cause among the ancients it hath been called Herb True-Love. In the middle of the said leaf comes forth a star-like flower of an herby or grassy colour; out of the midst whereof there ariseth up a blackish brown berry: the root is long and tender, creeping under the earth, and dispersing itself hither and thither.
2. The Small Lunary or Moonwort springeth forth of the ground with one leaf like Adder's-Tongue, jagged or cut on both sides into five or six deep cuts or notches, not much unlike the leaves of Scolopendria, or Ceterach, of a green colour; whereupon doth grow a small naked stem of a finger long, bearing at the top many little seeds clustering together; which being gathered and laid in a platter or such like thing for the space of three weeks, there will fall from the same a fine dust or meal of a whitish colour, which is the seed if it bring forth any. The root is slender, and compact of many small thready strings.
In England (saith Camerarius) there grows a certain kind of Lunaria, which hath many leaves and sometimes also sundry branches; which therefore I have caused to be delineated, that other herbarists might also take notice hereof. Thus much Camerarus Epit. Mat. p. 644, where he gives an elegant figure of a variety having more leaves and branches than the ordinary, otherwise not differing from it.
3. Besides this variety there is another kind set forth by Clusius; whose figure and description I think good here to set down. This hath a root consisting of many fibres somewhat thicker than those of the common kind: from which arise one or two winged leaves, that is, many leaves set to one stalk; and these are like the leaves of the other Lunaria, but that they are longer, thicker, and more divided, and of a yellowish green colour. Amongst these leaves there comes up a stalk fat and juicy, bearing a greater tuft of flowers or seeds (for I know not whether to call them) than the ordinary, but otherwise very like thereto. It groweth in the mountains of Silesia, and in same places of Austria.
The Place.
1. Herba Paris groweth plentifully in all these places following; that is to say, in Chalkney wood near to Wakes Colne, seven miles from Colchester in Essex, and in the wood by Robin Hood's Well, near to Nottingham; in the parsonage orchard at Radwinter in Essex, near to Saffron Walden; in Blackburn at a place called Merton in Lancashire; in the moor by Canterbury called the Clapper; in Dingley wood, six miles from Preston in Aunderness; in Backing park by Braintree in Essex; at Hesset in Lancashire, and in Cotting Wood in the North of England; as that excellent painful and diligent physician Mr. Doctor Turner of late memory doth record in his Herbal.
2. Lunaria or small Moonwort groweth upon dry and barren mountains and heaths. I have found it growing in these places following; that is to say, about Bath in Somersetshire in many places, especially at a place called Carey, two miles from Bruton, in the next close unto the churchyard; on Cock's Heath between Lowse and Linton, three miles from Maidstone in Kent: it groweth also in the ruins of an old brick-kiln by Colchester, in the ground of Mr. George Sayer, called Mile's End: it groweth likewise upon the side of Blackheath, near unto the stile that leadeth unto Eltham house, about an hundred paces from the stile: also in Lancashire near unto a Wood called Fairest, by Latham: moreover, in Nottinghamshire by the West wood at Gringley, and at Weston in the Ley field by the west side of the town; and in the Bishop's field at York, near unto Wakefield, in the close where Sir George Savill his house standeth, called the Heath Hall, by the relation of a learned doctor in Physic called Mr. John Mershe of Cambridge, and many other places.
The. Time.
1. Herba Paris flowereth in April, and the berry is ripe in the end of May.
2. Lunaria or small Moon-wort is to be seen in the month of May.
The Names.
1. One-Berry is also called Herb True-love, and Herb Paris: in Latin; Herba paris, and Solanum tetraphyllum by Gesner and Lobel.
2. Lunaria minor is called in English Small Lunary, and Moonwort.
The Nature.
Herb Paris is exceeding cold; whereby it represses the rage and force of poison. Lunaria minor is cold and dry of temperature.
The Virtues.
A. The berries of Herb Paris given by the space of twenty days are excellent good against poison, or the powder of the herb drunk in like manner half a spoonful at a time in the morning fasting.
B. The same is ministered with great success unto such as are become peevish, or without understanding, being ministered as is aforesaid, every morning by the space of twenty days, as Baptista Sardus, and Matthiolus have recorded. Since which time there hath been further experience made thereof against poison, and put in practice in the city of Paris, in Louvain, and at the baths in Helvetia, by the right excellent herbarists Matthias de Lobel, and Petria Pena, who having often read, that it was one of the Aconites, called Pardalianches, and so by consequence of a poisoning quality, they gave it unto dogs and lambs, who received no hurt by the same: wherefore they further prosecuted the experience thereof, and gave unto two dogs fast bound or coupled together, a dram of arsenic, and one dram of mercury sublimate mixed with flesh (in the the Adversaria it is but of each half a dram, and there pg. 105 you may find this history more largely set down.) which the dogs would not willingly eat, and therefore they had it crammed down their throats: unto one of these dogs they gave this antidote following in a little red wine, whereby he recovered his former health again within a few hours: but the other dog which had none of the medicine, died incontinently.
This is the receipt.
℞ Utriusque Angelica (innuit) domesticam, & sylvestrem, Vicetoxici, Valerianæ domestica, Polipodii querni, radicum Altheæ & Urticæ ana dramæ iiij, Corticis Mezerei Germanici, dramæ ii, granorum herbæ Paridis, N. 24, foliorium eiusdem cumtoto, Num. 6. Ex maceratis in aceto radicibus, & ficcatis fit omnium pulvis. ["He says: Take Angelica, either domestic or wild, Vicetoxicus, Garden Valerian, Oak Polypody, Marsh Mallow and Nettle roots, each 4 drams; German Mezereon bark, 2 drams; 24 Herb Paris seeds; 6 leaves of the same. Steep the roots in vinegar, evaporate it, and mix with all the other ingredients made into a powder"]
C. The people in Germany do use the leaves of Herb Paris in green wounds, for the which it is very good, as Joachimm Camerarius reporteth; who likewise saith, that the powder of the roots given to drink, doth speedily cease the gripings and pain of the Colic.
D. Small Moonwort is singular to heal green and fresh wounds: it stayeth the bloody flux. It hath been used among the alchemists and witches to do wonders withal, who say, that it will loose locks, and make them to fall from the feet of horses that graze where it doth grow, and hath been called of them Martagon, whereas in truth they are all but drowsy dreams and illusions; but it is singular for wounds as aforesaid.
Culpepper was more concise:
MOONWORT
Description. It rises up usually with but one dark green, thick and flat leaf, standing upon a short foot-stalk not above two fingers breadth; but when it flowers it may be said to bear a small slender stalk about four or five inches high, having but one leaf in the middle thereof, which is much divided on both sides into sometimes five or seven parts on a side, sometimes more; each of which parts is small like the middle rib, but broad forwards, pointed and round, resembling therein a half-moon, from whence it took the name; the uppermost parts or divisions being bigger than the lowest. The stalks rise above this leaf two or three inches, bearing many branches of small long tongues, every one like the spiky head of the adder's tongue, of a brownish colour, (which, whether I shall call them flowers, or the seed, I well know not) which, after they have continued awhile, resolve into a mealy dust. The root is small and fibrous. This hath sometimes divers such like leaves as are before described, with so many branches or tops rising from one stalk, each divided from the other.
Place. It grows on hills and heaths, yet where there is much grass, for therein it delights to grow.
Time. It is to be found only in April and May; for in June, when any hot weather comes, for the most part it is withered and gone.
Government and virtues. The Moon owns the herb. Moonwort is cold and drying more than adder's tongue, and is therefore held to be more available for all wounds both inward and outward. The leaves boiled in red wine, and drank, stay the immoderate flux of women's courses, and the whites. It also stays bleeding, vomiting, and other fluxes. It helps all blows and bruises, and to consolidate all fractures and dislocations. It is good for ruptures, but is chiefly used, by most with other herbs, to make oils or balsams to heal fresh or green wounds (as I said before) either inward or outward, for which it is excellently good.
Moonwort is an herb which (they say) will open locks, and unshoe such horses as tread upon it. This some laugh to scorn, and those no small fools neither; but country people, that I know, call it Unshoe the Horse. Besides I have heard commanders say, that on White Down in Devonshire, near Tiverton, there were found thirty horse shoes, pulled off from the feet of the Earl of Essex's horses, being there drawn up in a body, many of them being but newly shod, and no reason known, which caused much admiration: the herb described usually grows upon heaths.
Mrs. Grieve tells us:
The Moonwort is said to possess similar vulnerary virtues to Adder's Tongue. The Ancients regarded it as a plant of magical power, if gathered by moonlight, and it was employed by witches and necromancers in their incantations.
Parkinson says that it was used by the alchemists, who thought it had power to condensate or to convert quicksilver into pure silver.
---Description---It is a very singular-looking plant, the stem hollow and succulent, throwing off a single, barren pinna, having on each side very peculiar stalked pinnules, occasionally deeply notched throughout to their base. The stem itself, continuing upwards, has near the top other very short, alternate, branched offshoots, on which, or on the spike itself, are arranged the thecae in regular lines - like the Osmunda and Ophioglossum, uncovered by any indusium. This fructification appears in April.
The Moonwort is not uncommon on open heaths and pastures, where the soil is peaty, but not very wet.
This and Ophioglossum, alone among the Ferns, grow up straight, not with their fronds curled inward, crosier-fashion.
Plants for A Future states:
Moonwort has a long reputation as a vulnerary herb, the leaves are used externally as an ointment or taken internally. They are also used in the treatment of ruptures and dysentery.
Botany in a Day tells us:
A tea of the root has emetic, expectorant and diaphoretic properties. The tea induces a warm, gentle sweat while soothing the central nervous system. It is also mildly diuretic.
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