1098 



used in that neighbourhood to ornament the churches with its beau- 

 tiful berries at Christmas. Nothing could exceed the magnificence 

 of the Digitalis in all quarters : we found some fine white-flowered 

 plants, and also a white variety of Ajuga reptans. Festuca broraoides 

 and F. pseudo-myurus grew on walls at Harpford and Sidmouth. I 

 did not meet with any unusual or marked variety in ferns. They were 

 all of the commoner species, but in size and luxuriance far sui-passed 

 any I had ever seen. I was much interested in discovering, on an 

 ash-tree in Harpford Wood, a new lichen, — Lecidea leucoplaca of 

 Chevallier, as a friend, who is conversant with the species, informs 

 me it is called. Sticta pulmonaria of Hooker also grew on the same 

 tree. The fronds were remarkably large, and some in fructificaliou." 

 — M. M. Atwood ; Clifton Vale, Bristol, August 2, 1853. 



Lastrea Filix-mas and OpMoglossum vulgatum used in Medicine. 



" I send you an extract from ' The New Homoeopathic Pharmaco- 

 poeia and Posology :' — ' Tincture of Polypodium Filix-mas. — We 

 gather the plant in the summer months. That which grows on stony 

 declivities towards the North is considered the most efficacious. Of 

 the recently dug roots we take the inner marrow, and we likewise 

 take the youngest rudimentary leaves which are neither withered nor 

 gangrened, of a bright green colour, a strong sweetish and offensive 

 smell, and similar taste, which afterwards becomes bitterish, acerb, 

 and slightly astringent. Both are stripped of their brown epidermis, 

 after which we prepare according to class 2,' &c. 



" In a part of Herefordshire which is quite on the borders of Wor- 

 cestershire, and in the parish of Whitbourne, the country people, in 

 the spring, make what they call ' May ointment,' one of the ingredi- 

 ents in it being the adder's-tongue fern {Ophioglossum vulgatum). It 

 grows plentifully in a meadow in that district, and has been long in 

 use as an important part of the ointment, which is composed of a 

 variety of herbs, and is reckoned a panacea for bruises, tumours, &c. 

 The leaves and stems are the parts used of the Ophioglossum." — Id. ; 

 August 6, 1853. 



New Locality for Cystopteris moutana. ' 



" Previously to my setting off for Scotland, on the 1st of this mouth, 

 I was not able to get any information respecting the locality of Cys- 

 topteris montana, more than I obtained from the pages of the * Phy- 

 tologist;' and, when arrived within the district, in reply to my inquiries 

 respecting Corrach Uachdar or D'oufillach, no one that 1 met with 



