AMERICAN MEDICINAL PLANTS 



39 



along the mountains to Georgia and west to Missouri, Washington, and British 

 Columbia. 



Description. — These plants are readily recognized by the peculiar shape of 

 their flowers. These appear in May and June, are very showy, and have a 

 curiously formed lip which resembles an inflated bag, pale or bright yellow in 

 color, variously striped or blotched with purple. In Cypripedium pubescens 

 this lip is 1 to 2 inches in length, while in C. parviflorum it is smaller and some- 

 what more prominently striped. Both species grow from 1 to 2 feet in height 

 and have rather large leaves from 2 to 6 inches long and from 1 to 3 inches wide, 

 with numerous parallel veins. The rootstock is horizontal, crooked, and fleshy 

 with numerous fibrous roots. It has a heavy disagreeable odor and a sweetish, 

 bitter, and somewhat pungent taste. 



Part used. — The rootstock and roots, collected in autumn. In reasonably 

 constant demand. 



Figure 71.— Common yellow ladyslipper {Cy- 

 pripedium pubescens) 



Figure 72.- 



-Leather woodfern (Dryopteris 

 marginalia) 



LEATHER WOODFERN 



(1) Dryopteris marginalis (L.) A. Gray (fig. 72); (2) D.filixmas (L.) Schott. 



Synonyms. — (1) Aspidium marginale Sw.; (2) A. filixmas Sw. 



Other common names. — (1) Marginal-fruited shield fern, evergreen woodfern; 

 (2) male fern, male shield fern, sweet brake, knotty brake, basket fern, bear's- 

 paw root. 



Habitat and range. — These ferns are found in rocky woods, the male shield 

 fern inhabiting the region from Canada westward to the Rocky Mountains and 

 Arizona. The marginal-fruited shield fern, one of our most common ferns, 

 occurs from Canada southward to Alabama and Arkansas. 



Description. — Both of these plants are tall handsome ferns. They differ little 

 in their general appearance, although the male shield fern, which grows to a 

 height of about 3 feet, is somewhat larger than the other. The principal differ- 

 ence is in the arrangement of the fruit dots on the backs of the fern leaves. In 

 the male shield fern these are located along the midrib, while in the marginal- 

 fruited shield fern they are placed on the margins of the divisions of the fronds. 

 These ferns have stout, erect rootstocks from 6 tol2 inches in length and 1 to 2 

 inches thick, covered with brown, closely overlapping leaf bases and soft, brown, 

 chaffy scales. The inside of the rootstock is pale green. It has a disagreeable 

 odor and a bitter-sweet, astringent, nauseous taste. 



Part used. — The rootstock, collected from Jul}- to September, which should 

 be carefully cleaned, but not washed, dried out of doors in the shade as quickly as 

 possible, and marketed at once. The drug deteriorates rapidly unless carefully 

 preserved. In limited demand only, 



