THE PAGE OF NATURE. 53 



to fall, in time become perfect fronds. There is no more 

 pleasing and profitable study to the young botanist than 

 the examination of the highly curious structure and com- 

 plex system of fructification peculiar to this plant. It 

 is interesting also on account of its associations. Under 

 the name of Hepatica officinarum, it was employed by 

 the ancient herbalists, from its resemblance to the re- 

 ticulated structure of the liver, as a cure for all diseases 

 affecting that organ. It is still used as a popular re- 

 medy for jaundice and other maladies in some parts of 

 England; but its virtues are, in all likelihood, entirely 

 imaginary. Hoffmann and Willemet, in their elaborate 

 treatise upon the uses of lichens, state regarding it, 

 " Cette plante est amere, aromatique, abstersive, vul- 

 ndraire, sudorifique, aperitive. On prescrit 1'Hdpatique 

 en apozeme, a la dose d'une poignde pour 1'homme, et 

 de deux ou trois pour les animaux." The bruised fronds 

 of some species are singularly fragrant, resembling ber- 

 gamot. 



There is a class of plants whose external appearance 

 and mode of growth would indicate that they belong to 

 the tribe under review, but whose structure and func- 

 tions are so different, that they are commonly supposed 

 to bear a closer analogy to the ferns. They occupy an 

 intermediate position, and form a connecting link be- 

 tween ferns and mosses; I allude to the Lycopods or 

 club-mosses. They are usually found in bleak, bare, 

 exposed situations in all parts of the world, and some- 

 times attain a large size ; forsaking the creeping habit 

 peculiar to the family, and becoming arborescent in tro- 

 pical countries, particularly New Zealand, rivalling in 



