LICHENES, 627 



Under tte microscope, the cell-walls of the pareuchyma appear 

 of a dark-brown colour, and the vascular bundles are seen to 

 consist of large scalariform vessels. It has an astringent and 

 slightly bitter taste, 



Actinopteris dichotoma, Bedd. Fm^.— Mor-pankhi, 



Mayuraka, A feru which grows in the JN'ilgiri and Himalaya 

 Mountains, and upon rocks and old walls in the Deccan, but is 

 rare in the plains of India ; it is used as a styptic. ^^ Actinopteris 

 is a genus of polypodiaceous fern of the section Aspleniese, and 

 consists of curious little plants like miniature fan palms. The 

 technical peculiarities of the genus among the Asj^lenieae consist 

 in the simple distinct indusia, free veins, and linear-elongate 

 sori, which are marginal on the contracted rachiform segments 

 of the small flabelliform fronds." (T. Moore in ''Treasury 

 of Botany,^*) Atkinson states that this fern is used as an 

 anthelmintic. 



LICHENES. 



PARMELIA KAMTSCHADALIS, Esch. 



Hab. — Himalaya, Persia. 



PARMELIA PERLATA, Esch. 



Fig~Enff. Bot., 341. 



Hab. — India, Europe, Africa. The plant. 



Vernaciclar.—ChaTGla, Charcliarela, Pathar-ke-phul, Sil^-bak 

 {Etnd.), Motlia-dagada-pliul,Bdrik-dagada-plidl {Mar.), Ghabilo, 

 Ctadila (Guz.), Kalpasi, Kalapu {Tarn.), Ratipanche (Tel.). 



History, Uses, &C.— Two lichens are found in all 

 Indian bazars, which are known as the greater and ^ lesser 

 "stone-flowers" in the vernaculars, and in Sanskrit as Sila-valka 

 or " rock-bark." Similar plants were known to the Greeks as 

 ^P^ou and rr<pdyuos, and to the Eomans as Muscus. Dioscorides 

 (i., 22) notices their medicinal properties, also PHny (xil., 61). 

 THe Arabs call them TJshuah, a name derived from the 



,P 



