365 



setting it on fire, and making mimic lightning, which can 

 be very successfully accomplished. The tree-like Lyco- 

 podhun Ground Pine, much used for trimming 

 churches at Christmas, is nearly related. V . 



SEVENTIETH FAMILY. FILICES. FERXS. 



Shield Fern or Male Wood Fern (Polipodium filix 

 mas). This plant, common alike in the woods of Ger- 

 many and our own country, has large, handsome leaves, 

 or fronds, doubly pinnate, with round fruit-dots borne on 

 the back or sometimes on the extremity of the veins, 

 consist of a fine powder, which is the true fruit of the 

 plant. The root, black and woody, is used medicinally, 

 as it contains an essential oil and a quantity of resinous 

 substance, which is considered a specific for destroying 

 the tape-worm. 



The Maiden Hair (Adiantum capillus veneris), leaves 

 or fronds on long foot-stalks, smooth, doubly pinnate, 

 light green; pinnules, or leaflets, recurved, semi-oval, 

 eared, and alternate ; fruit-dots oblong, occupying the 

 edge or margin of the pinnae ; foot-stalk and peduncular 

 axis glossy and brownish-black. Grows in the south of 

 Europe, by rocks and damp walls ; is used medicinally. 

 Syrup of Maiden Hair, formerly much in vogue, is pre- 

 pared from this plant. K. 



A great variety of ferns are found in the South, some 

 of them growing to an almost incredible size.* 



* The tree ferns of the tropics, the stems of -which are often erect, 

 frequently attain a height of seventy or eighty feet. They are said 

 to be objects of incomparable beauty, their straight, unbranched trunks 

 often rising like those of palms, as high as forty or fifty feet without 

 a leaf. GRAY. Tr. 



