_Fern Seed_ (Vol. v., pp. 172. 356.).--I am led to think there is an
error in the notice of your correspondent R. S. F. on the above subject.
The seed of St. John's Fearn cannot be gathered on Midsummer Eve,
inasmuch as at that time it is in a merely embryotic state. The seed
attains perfection late in autumn, and it remains attached to the dry
brown stem until shaken off by the autumnal and winter blasts. The
taking of it, therefore, is not, according to those versed in such
mysteries, the easy task of a Midsummer twilight, but must be performed
amid the darkness of a winter's night. On the midnight of Saint John the
Evangelist, to whom the seed and plant are dedicated, must it be shaken,
not pulled, from its stem. Very probably mystic virtues were imputed to
the seed before the introduction of Christianity. And it were not
perhaps hazarding too much to suppose that the old superstitious monks
assigned it to Saint John from an idea that the potency of the seed
might have influenced the wondrous revelations with which he, more than
any other of the disciples, or all the disciples, was favoured.