male fern
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Tweet n. A fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) of Eurasia and North America, having stalks with brown scales and containing an oleoresin formerly used to expel tapeworms. [Ultimately from a translation of Latin mās, male (used by Pliny the Elder to describe a variety of this fern, in reference to its robustness and in contrast to a more delicate fern that he calls nymphaea filix, literally, nymph fern).] |
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