384 



POL 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



POL 



ovate, blunt, almost entire; stipe and branches rough-haired. 

 Native of Jamaica. 



90. Polypodium Rhoeticum ; Stone Polypody. Fronds 

 bipinnate; leaflets and pinnas remote, lanceolate; serratures 

 acuminate. Native of England, France, Germany, Switzer- 

 land, Carniola, and Siberia. With us, it abounds in Derby- 

 shire, Westmoreland, Wales, and Scotland. 



9.. Polypodium Elongatum; Cut-leaved Polypody . Fronds 

 bipinnate, smooth ; pinnas blunt, sharply serrate, the upper 

 ones ovate, the middle oblong, the lower lanceolate, pinnatifid, 

 sharpish. Native of Madeira and the Azores. 



92. Polypodium Noveboracense. Fronds bipinnate; pinnas 

 oblong, quite entire, parallel; stipe even. Found in Canada. 



93. Polypodium Pubescens. Fronds bipinnate, hairy; 

 pinnas lanceolate-ovate, somewhat gashed, acute; the out- 

 most confluent.- Native of Jamaica, but not common there. 



94. Polypodium Marginale; Marginal-flowering Polypody. 

 Fronds bipinnate; pinnas sinuate, repand at the base; fruc- 

 tifications marginal. Native of Canada. 



95. Polypodium Bulbiferum ; Bulbiferous Polypody. 

 Fronds bipinnate ; leaflets remote ; pinnas oblong, obtuse, 

 serrate, bulbiferous underneath. Among the fructifications 

 are round globules, first green, then black, of a sweetish taste, 

 like the root of the Common Polypody; when ripe, according 

 to Cornutus, they fall to the ground and strike root ; from 

 which circumstance, Linneus calls them bulbs. Bobart rather 

 conceives these globules, bulbs, or tubers, to be the work of 

 insects, because it is unusual to find two sorts of seeds on the 

 same plant; but there are several plants which increase both 

 by seeds and bulbs. Native of Canada. 



96. Polypodium Fragile ; Brittle Polypody. Fronds 

 bipinnate; leaflets remote; pinnas roundish, gashed. Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Smith, who makes this a Cyathea, the frond is 

 bipinnate and pinnatifid, its segments obovate and notched, 

 the stalk winged, the flowers scattered, and the calix torn. 

 Dr. Withering has three varieties, but they have been all 

 gathered from the same root. Native of Europe, on rocks. 

 In England it is found at Peak's Hole, and on walls about 

 Buxton in Derbyshire; near Hyde, in Gloucestershire; in 

 the road from Bourn Heath to Worms Ash, near Bromsgrove; 

 and in Wales and Scotland. 



97. Polypodium Regium. Fronds bipinnate; leaflets sub- 

 opposite ; pinnas alternate, laciniate. Native of Carniola, 

 France, and Piedmont. 



98. Polypodium Leptophyllum ; Fine-leaved Polypody. 

 Fronds bipinnate, the barren ones very short; pinnas cunei- 

 form, lobate. This is a smooth, delicate, and almost diapha- 

 nous plant. Linneus, who doubted whether it were a Poly- 

 podium, says it is a middle species between this genus and 

 those of Acrostichum and Osmunda. Magnol and Barrelier 

 make it an Adiantium; and Swartz affirms it to be a genuine 

 Asplenium, with bipinnate and tripinnatifid fronds, remote 

 pinnas, and cuneiform, gashed, lobed,and solitary fructifica- 

 tions. Native of Spain, Portugal, Provence, and Algiers, in 

 the fissures of rocks. 



99. Polypodium Barometz; Scythian Lamb Polypody. 

 Fronds bipinnate; pinnas pinnatifid, lanceolate, serrate; roots 

 woolly. Native of Tartary, China, and Cochin-china. 

 Many authors have written upon this very singular plant, 

 and most of them fabulously. Some have given a figure of 

 it much resembling a lamb, as the fruit of some plant, on the 

 top of a stalk. It is well known, however, to be the root, 

 which, from the variety of its form, is easily turned into the 

 form of a lamb, which the Tartars call Barometz. The root 

 rises above the ground in an oblong form, covered all over 

 "with hairs; towards one end it frequently becomes narrower, 



and then thicker, so as to give somewhat of the shape of a 

 head and neck; and it has sometimes two pendulous hairy 

 excrescences, resembling ears; at the other end a short shoot 

 extends out into a tail ; four fronds are chosen in a suitable 

 position, and are cut off to a proper length, to represent the 

 legs : and thus a vegetable lamb or dog is produced, which 

 at a due distance it may be easy to mistake for a real 

 animal. It is scarcely necessary to contradict the fables 

 that have been related of this remarkable Fern root ; such 

 as, that no grass will grow near it, the ground appearing as 

 if the lamb had fed it bare. Loureiro, who had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining it in its living state, declares that the 

 root, when first cut, yields a tenacious juice, very like the 

 blood of animals in colour and substance; but that all the 

 other wonderful stones told about it, are fabulous. In the 

 account of this plant, contained in our Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, it is said that the down of the root is commonly 

 taken for spitting of blood, about six grains forming a dose, 

 and three doses pretended to cure such a haemorrhage : and 

 that in China this down is used for stopping of blood in fresh 

 wounds, as cobwebs are with us, and is so generally esteemed, 

 that few families are ever without it. This down is of a dark 

 yellowish snuff colour, shining like silk, some of it a quarter 

 of an inch long. The celebrated physician- and botanist, Dr. 

 Darwin, thus celebrates this peculiar kind of Fern, in his 

 Poem called " The Loves of the Plants." 



" Cradled in snow, and fann'd by Arctic air, 

 Shines, gentleZJaromete .' thy golden hair ; 

 Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends, 

 And round and round her flexile neck she bends ; 

 Crops the gray coral moss and hoary thyme, 

 Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime ; 

 Eyes with mute tenderness h^r distant dain, 

 Or seems to bleat, a vegetable Lamb." 



100. Polypodium Lacerum. Fronds bipinnate; pinnules 

 sessile; the outmost confluent, falcate, serrate; stipe scaly; 

 root creeping, scaly; scales close, membranaceous, brown, 

 smooth. Native of Japan. 



101. Polypodium Setosum. Fronds bipinnate; pinnules 

 lanceolate, gashed, entire; stipe bristly. Native of Japan. 



102. Polypodium Glaucum. Frond bipartite, bipinnate, 

 glaucous underneath; pinnules gashed, entire. Native of 

 Japan ; flowering in June. 



103. Polypodium Dichotomum. Dichotomous : fronds 

 pinnate; pinnas linear-lanceolate, quite entire, horizontal, 

 glaucous underneath. The ashes of this, with powdered alum, 

 are exhibited in aphthas and excoriations of the mouth, in 

 Japan. The New Zealanders suck out the sweetish farina- 

 ceous part of the root, having first roasted it, and beat it well 

 with a stone or club. Native of Jamaica, Japan, and in the 

 dry mountains of New Zealand, and the Society Isles. 



****** Prickly, with scattered Spines, or arborescent. 



104. Polypodium Arboreum ; Tree Polypody. Fronds 

 bipinnate, serrate; trunk arboreous, unarmed. This Fern 

 rises to the great height of twenty-five feet; it is, like the 

 other Ferns and Palms, furnished only with ribs, which fall off 

 gradually as it rises, while the new shoots spring up from the 

 top. It resembles the Palm tribe also, both in the form and 

 structure of its woody trunk, being very hard immediately 

 under the bark, but loose, soft, and fibrous in the middle. It 

 holds for many years, bears all the inclemencies of the weather, 

 and is often used for posts, where the smaller Palms are not 

 at hand. Native of South America, Jamaica, Amboyna, and 

 Cochin-china. 



10.5. Polypodium Spinosum. Fronds bipinnate, serrate ; 

 trunk arboreous, prickly. It rises to the height of twenty 



