FILIOES. 1385 



FILICES.* 



Adiantum : — Sori marginal, varying in shape from globose 

 to linear usually numerous and distinct, sometimes confluent 

 and continuous ; indusium of the same shape as the sorus, 

 formed of the reflexed margin of the fronds bearing the capsules 

 on its under side, veins free. (Beddome.) 



1349. A. lunulatum, Burnt. 



Bef. : — Beddome's Handbook to the Ferns of Br. In., &c. p. 82. 



Vern : — Kali-jhaut (B. and H.) ; Mubarak ; rajhansor hansraj 

 (Bomb.) ; Ghorakburi (Bomb.). 



Habitat : — Throughout North India in moist places. South 

 India very general on the western side in the plains and lower 

 slopes of hills. (Bird wood's catalogue of Matheran and Maha- 

 bleshwar flora.) (K. R. K.) 



Stipes 4-6 inches long, tufted, wiry, naked, polished dark 

 chestnut-brown ; fronds 6-12 inches long and 3 inches broad, 

 simply pinnate, often elongated and rooting at the apex ; pinnae 

 subdimidiate, the lower edge nearly in a line or oblique with the 

 petiole, the upper edge rounded and like the bluntly-rounded 

 sides usually more or less lobed ; petioles of the lower ones 

 spreading J-J inch long, texture herbaceous ; the rachis and both 

 surfaces naked ; sori in continuous lines along the edge. 



Uses : — " In Gujrat it is extensively used in the treatment 

 of chidren for febrile affections. The leaves are rubbed with 

 water and given with sugar. It is worked up with ochre and 

 applied locally for erysipelatous inflammations." (J. Robb. 

 Ahmedabad). " Demulcent ; used externally as a cooling lotion 

 in cases of erysipelas." (Surg. W. Barren, Bhuj, Watt's Die). 



* Regarding Medicinal Ferns, the late Dr. M. C. Cooke wrote in the 

 Pharmaceutical Journal for September 3rd, 1870 : — 



" Ferns have been rather extensively employed in medicine, and some 

 of them have acquired considerable reputation ; but it is doubtful whether, 

 with two or three exceptions, they are of any real value. Some are probably 

 inerts, others only possess properties which are more highly developed in 

 other substances. On the whole, ferns are by no means important remedial 

 agents, and their enumeration is more matter of curiosity than suggestive 

 of value." 



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