. 888 PROPERTIES AND UsES. 
Oibotium Baromelz. 
À native of China and Tartary. The fronds of this Fern 
. are bipinnate, and rise to the height of 10 to 14 feet, pro- 
duced from a decumbent and progressing caudex, which is 
densely covered with long light brown silky hairs (charac- 
teristic of the genus), when old looking like wool, and 
when lying on the ground having the appearance of a 
wool-clad animal. The story told to early travellers led ` 
them to describe it as a plant of flesh and blood. The 
travellers’ tale upon the subject is, that on an elevated 
plain of vast extent, in countries east of the Volga, grows 
a wonderful plant, with the shape and appearance of a 
lamb, having feet, head, and tail distinctly formed, and its 
skin covered with soft down. The “lamb” grows upon a 
stalk about 3 feet high, the part by which it is sustained ` 
being a kind of navel it turns about and bends to the d 
herbage which serves for its food, and when the grass fails : 5 
 itdries up and pines away. The real facts are that the — — 
-caudex of this Fern is decumbent, progressing in length ` 
. 8 foot or more according to age, and is 8 or more inches ` 
in diameter. Its woolly appearance has led it to be likened ` ` 
er a lamb, the native name for it being Barometz, and by 
travellers the “ Tartarian lamb," and others “Agnus Sey- ` 
thicus." E 
To make the story plausible the natives turn the woolly S 
stipes upside down, cutting away the fronds, leaving a 
portion of the lower part of the stipes, four of which serve 
as legs, and thus the resemblance to a woolly animal is 
~ | complete, and, being so manipulated, much gegen a 
t i De Chinese traveller and ims Lourier was the I 
