The obsession for fern collecting spread throughout England during the nineteenth century, it was given the Latin name Pteridomania by author Charles Kingsley from his novel ‘Glaucus: The wonders of the shore’ published in 1855. Searching for ferns in the countryside became very popular especially amongst women and often the plants were transferred to specially made grottos and indoor terrariums. The different specimens were utilised by Victorian designers to create fern motifs on all sorts of domestic objects from garden benches to ceramics and even custard cream biscuits. The fern is one of the earliest plant formations in existence and can be dated back 360 million years its decomposition created coal in which well preserved fern fossils can still be found. Today, the growing of ferns has additional eco benefit because they absorb arsenic and other harmful chemicals from the atmosphere providing a natural way to counteract pollution.
