FERNS, AND THEIR ALLIES. 39 



sieves prepared for the purpose ; and being shaken 

 from time to time, tlie powder drops out, when it is 

 collected and, after being dried anew, is fit for sale. 

 In pharmacy this dust is used to roll up boluses and 

 pills, the result being to cover them with a foreign 

 substance which preserves them unaltered. In fact, 

 so completely does the lycopode coat the surface of 

 the pills, that they may be put into water, and taken 

 out again, without being moistened, an experiment 

 which may be still more satisfactorily made by 

 putting one's hand into water into which lycopode 

 has been thrown, when the hand will come out dry. 

 The adherence of these minute seeds to one another, 

 is doubtless the cause of this phenomenon." ^ 



* W. J. Hooker, "Of Lycopodium," in Aimals of Natural History, 

 Aug., 1838, p. 428. 



