RHIZOMA FILICIS. 733 



for placing in pill boxes to prevent the mutual adhesion of pills. It is 

 also employed by the pyrotechnist. 



Adulteration — The spores are so peculiar in structure, that they 

 can be distinguished with certainty by the microscope from all other 

 substances. It is only the species of clubmoss that are nearly related 

 ioL. davatnm} that yield an analogous product, and this may he used 

 with equal advantage. 



The pollen of phseuogamous plants, as of Pinus sUvestris, looks at 

 first sight much like lycopodium, but its structure is totally different and 

 very easily recognized by the microscope. 



Water, even on boiling, is unable to dissolve anything from lyco- 

 podium ; slight traces of sulphate of calcium are not seldom met with 

 in the filtrate. Yet an undue proportion of gypsum will be detected 

 by the following methods :— 



Starch and dextrin, which are sometimes fraudulently mixed with 

 the spores, are easily recognized by the well-known tests. Inorganic 

 admixtures, as gypsum or magnesia, may be detected by their sinking 

 in bisulphide of carbon, whereas lycopodium rises to the surface; 

 or by incineration, a good commercial drug leaving about 4 per cent. 

 of ash. 



FILICES. 



RHIZOMA FILICIS. 



Radix Filicis maris ; Male Fern Rhizome, Male Fern Root; F. Racivp 



de Fougere male ; G. FarnwttrzeL 



Botanical Origin— A spidium Filix mas Swuriz {Polyiwdium L. 

 Nephroditim Michaux). The male fern is one of the most widely dis- 

 tributed species, usually growing in abundance and, m temperate 

 regions, ascendincr as hi^h as the arborescent vegetation. It occurs aii 

 over Europe from Sicily to Iceland, in Greenland, throughout Central 

 and Russian Asia to the Himalaya and Japan ; is found throughout 

 China, and again in Java and the Sandwich Islands, as ^v^^^^ ^^ 

 Africa from Algeria to the Cape Colony and Mauritius. 1^J^«^ J 

 America it is wanting in the Eastern United SUtes, being P^^^^P^ > 

 Replaced by the nearly allied Aspidium mavginalehv^- and ^ J^oi- 

 dieamtm Hook. ; but it is met with in Canada, Cahfornia and ^ey^ico, 

 as weU as in New Granada, Venezuela, Brazil, and Peru. 



History-The use of the rhizome of ferns as a ?f ^""f ' .;%" ^n 

 known to the ancients/ as Theophrasfcus, Daoscorides and Plmy aU 

 f ving curious descriptions of the plant. The remedy wouW appear o 

 have been administered also during the middle ^g^^^^^ ' ^^^^^E 

 t'oticed by Valerius Cordus,3 and had a place in f ™^'?,i^^ ^"'^^n * 

 tariffs of the sixteenth century as well as in Schroder s Dispensatoi>. 



J Especially L. annoiinnr,,, L. cor^pla. » Lib. 4, cap. 15G of the work <l„otea in 



««fo^ and L. inundatum. thf fP'S'^t LmhcU Apolh eke, Nuroberg. 



