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Today is April Fool's Day.
"The first of April, of all days in the year, enjoys a character of its own. On this day, it becomes the business of a vast number of people, especially the younger sort, to practice innocent impostures upon their unsuspicious neighbors, by way of making them what in France are called poissons d'Avril, and with us April fools."
—R. Chambers, The Book of Days, 1869
Fern Seeds Will Make You Invisible!
One of the favorite April Fool tricks of by-gone days was to give somebody a packet of fern seed, telling him that if he carried it in his pocket, he'd be invisible. Yes, I know. Ferns can't make you invisible. But that was part of the April Fool trick, and a lot of people fell for it.
The connection between fern seed and invisibility goes back to the times when it was thought that all plants reproduced from seed. Well, then, it was logical. If there no visible seeds, the seeds must be invisible. And if your logic took you that far, it could take you one step farther: put some of those fern seeds in your pocket, and you would be invisible, too.
Since Midsummer Night's Eve was known to be a magical night, it was obviously the best time to collect these magical, mythical, mysterious ferns seeds. On that night in Bohemia, girls spread white cloths under the ferns to catch the seed, which could not only make them invisible, but lead them to a vein of gold. In Brittany, fern seed collected on Midsummer Night could be kept until the next Palm Sunday, when it would show the way to treasure. And in Austria, fern seed tossed into a cache of money would keep that money from decreasing in value. Quite a reputation for something that couldn't be seen!
It wasn't until 1848 that the real mystery of fern reproduction was solved, and botanists understood the two-phase process that involves both asexual and sexual reproduction. But folklore has a long life. Which is why people could be April Fooled, and why stories about "invisible fern seeds" still appear as late as the beginning of the twentieth century.
Ferns have been used to treat a variety of physical ailments, from wounds and burns to intestinal parasites. The immature, coiled fronds are edible—in New England, the steamed and buttered fiddleheads of the ostrich fern are considered a great delicacy—and the dried fronds are used in basketry and papermaking, and as ornamentals.
Read more about the secret life of ferns:
- A Natural History of Ferns, by Robbin C. Moran
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