The rhizomes and stems of many ferns abound in starch, and have a commercial value, either as medicine or food. The soft mucilaginous pith of _Cyathea medullaris_, one of the large tree-ferns of New Zealand, was formerly eaten by the natives. It is of a reddish colour, and, when baked, acquires a somewhat pungent flavour. In New Zealand ferns seem to be in some repute for their edible properties, for the large scaly rhizomes of _Marattia fraxinea_, and those of another fern, _Pteris esculenta_, nearly allied to our common bracken, _P. aquilina_, are also eaten by the Maoris. The natives bake them in ashes, peel them with their teeth, and eat them with meat, as we do bread; and sometimes pound them between stones, in order to extract the nutritious matter, the woody part being rejected as useless. In Nepaul, the rhizomes of _Nephrolepis tuberosa_ are similarly prepared for food; and in New Caledonia the mucilaginous matter of _Cyathea vieillardii_ is obtained from incisions made in the stem, or at the base of the fronds. The succulent fronds of the little water-fern, _Ceratopteris thalictroides_, are boiled and eaten as a vegetable by the poorer classes in the Indian Archipelago. The young shoots of the handsome tree-fern, _Angiopteris evecta_, are eaten in the Society Islands, and its large rhizome, which is in great part composed of mucilage, yields, when dried, a kind of flour. In the same islands the young fronds of _Helminthostachys limulata_, the “Balabala” of the Fiji Islands, are eaten in times of scarcity; and the soft scales covering the _stipes_ of the fronds are used by the white settlers for stuffing pillows and cushions in preference to feathers, because they do not become heated, and are thus more comfortable in a sultry climate. In New South Wales, the thick rhizome of _Blechnum cartilagineum_ is much eaten by the natives. It is first roasted and then beaten, so as to break away the woody fibre: it is said to taste like a waxy potato. By skilful treatment the inhabitants of Southern China occasionally converted the thick root-stock of one of these tree-ferns, “_Dicksonia barometz_,” into a rough semblance of a quadruped, which quadruped, by a foregone conclusion, was supposed to be a lamb. They removed entirely the fronds that grew upward from the rhizome, excepting four, and these four they trimmed down until only about four inches of each stalk was left. The object thus shaped being turned upside down, the root-stock represented the body of the animal, and was supported by the four inverted stalks of the fronds, as upon four legs. If the specimen had an insufficient number of stalks growing from it to make the four legs, others were artificially and neatly affixed to it; ears were similarly provided, and, if necessary, the trunk was fitted with a head and neck made from another root-stock.