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Ancient; old. [Obs.] "Pilgrimages to . . . ferne halwes." [saints]. Chaucer.

A place for rearing ferns.

A freckle on the skin, resembling the seed of fern. [Prov. Eng.]

Abounding in ferns.

A vessel for heating water. [Obs.] Johnson.

a common species of fern with large decompound fronds (Asplenium Filixfæmina), growing in many countries; lady fern.

A species of fern (Lomaria borealis), growing in Europe and Northwestern America.

A species of fern (Davallia Canariensis) with a soft, gray, hairy rootstock; -- whence the name.

ing to Pluto's realm of the dead, the Tartarus of the ancients. The Elysian fields, the infernal monarchy. Garth.

In an infernal manner; diabolically. "Infernally false." Bp. Hacket.

The infernal regions; hell. Also used fig.

Copper-nickel; niccolite. See Niccolite.

Any gorgonian which branches like a fern.

See under Stag.

A river in the Nether World or infernal regions; also, the infernal regions themselves. By some of the English poets it was supposed to be a flaming lake or gulf. Shak.

Of or pertaining to Acheron; infernal; hence, dismal, gloomy; moribund.

Having no seed lobes, as the dodder; also applied to plants which have no true seeds, as ferns, mosses, etc.

A plant of the highest class of cryptograms, including the ferns, etc. See Cryptogamia. The Age of Acrogens (Geol.), the age of coal plants, or the carboniferous era.

A genus of ferns (Ophioglossum), whose seeds are produced on a spike resembling a serpent's tongue.

A genus of ferns, the leaves of which shed water; maidenhair. Also, the black maidenhair, a species of spleenwort.