281 



£t)e Crta^urg at ftatzny. 



[cicc 



fern, -which is no doubt the species just re- 

 ferred to. "When inverted, the basal part 

 of the stipes of four of the fronds suitably 

 placed, having been retained as legs, and 

 the rest cast away, these caudices pre- 

 sent an appearance which may be taken as 

 a rude representation of some small woolly 

 animal. The 'traveller's tale' is that on 

 an elevated uncultivated salt-plain of vast 

 extent, west of the Volga, grows a wonder- 

 ful plant, with the appearance of a lamb 

 (Baran in Russian), having feet, head, and 

 tail distinctly formed, and its skin covered 

 with soft down. The ' lamb ' grows upon 

 a stalk about three feet high, the part by 

 which it is sustained being a kind of 

 navel : it turns about and bends to the 

 herbage, which serves for its food, and 

 pines away when the grass dries up and 

 fails. The fact on which this tale is based 

 appears to be, that the caudex of this plant 

 may be made to present a rude appearance 

 of an animal covered with silky hair-like 

 scales, and if cut into is found to have a 

 soft inside with a reddish flesh-coloured 

 apjtearance. "WTien the herbage of its 

 native haunts fails through drought, its 

 leaves no doubt droop and die, but both 

 perish from the same cause, and inde- J 

 pendently of each other. ' Thus it is,' ob- 

 serves Dr. Lindley, that 'simple people 

 have been pursuaded that there existed, in 

 the deserts of Scythia, creatures half 

 animal, half plant.' ' This condition of the 

 rootstock of some ferns,' writes Sir W. J. 

 Hooker, 'long engaged the attention of 

 early writers of the marvellous, and many 

 strange figures were published of it ; but 

 Dr. Beyue, of Dantzig, in 1725, declared ! 

 that the pretended Agnus Scythicus was 

 nothing more than the root of a large I 

 fern covered with its natural villus or j 

 yellow down, and accompanied by some | 

 of the stems, &c, in order, when placed j 

 in "an inverted position, the better to repre- j 

 sent the appearance of the legs and horns | 

 of a quadruped.' He also adds, ' that the t 

 down or villus is the poco sempic, or 

 " golden moss," so much esteemed by the | 

 Chinese for the purpose of stopping 

 haemorrhage,' — the very use to which it 

 has been found to be applied elsewhere in 

 modern times. A substance called Pulu, 

 consisting of silky fibrous hairs, used for 

 stuffing mattresses, &c, is obtained from 

 three species of this genus, C. glaucum, 

 Chamissoi, and Menziesii, natives of the 

 Sandwich Islands, whence this article has 

 become a regular export, to the extent of 

 some thousands of pounds annually. This 

 Pulu consists of the hair-like scales found 

 on the crown of the stem and about the 

 base of the frond-stalks of the ferns ; only 

 a small quantity, about two or three ounces, 

 is found on each plant, and it takes about 

 four years for the plants to reproduce this 

 amount. The ferns which produce the 

 Pulu grow on all the high lands of the 

 Sandwich Islands at an elevation of about 

 1000 ft. The silken golden-coloured hairs 

 of Dicksonia Culdta are employed in the 

 same way in Madeira and the adjacent 

 isles. A similar fibrous substance, used 



medicinally as a styptic, is derived in the 

 islands of the Eastern Archipelago from the 

 caudex and stipes of C. Barometz ; and also 

 from Dicksonia chrysotricha, of which lat- 

 ter a plantation belonging to the Dutch 

 government exists in the interior of Java, 

 and the produce of this plantation has 

 been exported to Holland for public sale. 

 This substance is called Penghawar Djambi. 

 Its styptic properties seem attributable to 



Cibotium Barometz (caudex. in a natural state, 

 and formed into a Tartarian Lamb) 



the rapidity with which its filaments, act- 

 ing by capillary attraction, absorb the 

 aqueous particles of the blood, and thus 

 cause its immediate coagulation. C. Men- 

 ziesii, one of the species said to furnish 

 Pulu, has large thick coriaceous bipinnate 

 fronds, the large oblong acuminate sinuato- 

 pinnatifld pinnules with rounded lobes, 

 bearing several large corneous opaque in- 

 volucres. This may be taken as a fair 

 representative of the other species, one of 

 which, besides those already mentioned, is 

 found in Assam, and another of very 

 graceful habit in Mexico. [T. M.] 



CIBOULE. (Fr.) Allium ascalonicum. 

 — COMMUNE. The Welsh Onion, Allium 

 fistulosum. 



CIBOULETTE. <Fr.) Allium Schceno- 

 prasum. 



CICATRICULE. The scar formed by the 

 separation of a leaf from its stem. 



CICATRJSATE, OICATRICOSE. Marked 

 with scars. 



CICATRIX. Any kind of scar formed 

 by the separation of one part from an- 

 other. 



CICCA. A genus of Euphorbiacece, com- 

 prising a number of small trees or shrubs, 

 natives of the tropical parts of India, 

 Africa, and America. The leaves, stalked, 

 entire, and generally oval, are furnished 

 with minute stipules ; the small green 

 flowers are shortly stalked, generally four 

 to Ave in the axils of the leaves, but some- 

 times in long-bracted racemes ; the males 

 and females being on the same, or on 

 different plants. The males have a calyx 

 of four divisions, no petals, and four free 

 stamens inserted on a disc, which arrange 

 ment of the parts in fours serves to distin 



