Monday 4 February 2019

February 2019 -- ferns and coughs

Hart's-tongue ferns

ather in January used to be a rare thing, but up to the time of writing we have had very little real cold, and the Snowdrops are well developed and ready to open their buds. On a sunny day in January it is surprising how much bird activity can be seen and heard. Song Thrushes are singing, and on a field near the church their northern cousins the Fieldfares and the Redwings have been feeding. Goosanders are on both reservoirs as they usually are in winter, and as I watched two males snaking along the reeds I was once again impressed by the streamlined elegance of these powerful ducks.
     The Alders planted by the lower reservoir are looking good, abundantly festooned with dull purple catkins. They are handsome trees, attractive through out the year, and being commonly available gained a place in Culpeper’s Herbal, ‘The leaves put under the bare feet gauled with travelling are a great refreshing to them’. Hazels are growing here, also bearing winter catkins. Last year a crop of hazel nuts was produced, and these are referred to in Culpeper, ‘The milk drawn from the kernels with mead is very good to help an old cough’.
      Culpeper’s Herbal appeared in 1653, a year before the author’s death. Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654) wrote it after much research, in the belief that remedies made from common plants would benefit the masses when medical care was available only to a wealthy few. The book sold in vast numbers, my own disintegrating copy seemingly made from cheap materials, and inscribed at the front with a verse from the Book of Kings describing the wisdom of Solomon, ‘And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall.’ It is written in a very individual style sometimes enlivened by a rant, ‘Why should the vulgar so familiarly affirm that eating nuts causes shortness of breath? For how can that which strengthens lungs cause shortness of breath? And so thus have I made an apology for nuts which cannot speak for themselves.
I always admire the ferns growing on the ruined cottage wall near the upper reservoir. Very distinctive are the Harts-tongue Ferns, yet another example of a plant once held to have healing properties, ‘The distilled water thereof is very good against the passions of the heart, and to stay the hiccough’.

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February 2019 -- ferns and coughs

Hart's-tongue ferns ather in January used to be a rare thing, but up to the time of writing we have had very little real cold, a...