16 MALE SHIELD FERN. 



nearly allied to the Aspidium Filix Mas, is the Scythian 

 or Tartarian lamb, about which so many wonderful tales 

 have been told, that the world has doubted whether or 

 not to credit them. Struys, who travelled through 

 Russia and Tartary in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, gave one of the earliest and best accounts of 

 this curious plant. He says " it has the shape and 

 appearance of a lamb, with feet, head, and tail dis- 

 tinctly formed : its skin is covered with a white 

 down as soft as silk. The Tartars and Muscovites 

 esteem it highly, and preserve it in their houses with 

 great care. The sailor who gave me one of these 

 precious plants, found it in a wood, and had its skin 

 made into an under waistcoat. I learned at Astrachan 

 that the lamb grows on a stalk about three feet high ; 

 that the part by which it is sustained is a kind of 

 navel, and that it turns itself round and bends down- 

 wards to the herbage, which serves for its food. They 

 also said that it dies and pines away when the grass 

 fails. They added, that the wolves are very fond of 

 these vegetable lambs, and they devour them with 

 avidity, because they resemble in taste the animal 

 whose name they bear ; and that in fact they have 

 bones, flesh, and blood ; and hence they are called 

 zoophytes, i. e. plant-animals. Many other things I 

 was likewise told, which might, however, appear 

 scarcely probable to such as have not seen them." 



This wonderful tale of Struys's, though of course 

 much exaggerated, is based on truth. The rhizoma of 

 Aspidium Baromez does, when the fronds are removed, 

 somewhat resemble a lamb in appearance, and is 



