118 
CHARACTERS, DISTRIBUTION, ETC., OP FER^sS. 
of the “ Tartarian or Scythian lamb,” ( Cibotium Barometz or Baranetz ) of our Catalogues, 
or, as it should be called, C. Baranyetz, which signifies lamb, being derived from the 
Russian word Baran, sheep. It is identical with Cibotium glaucescens and Aspidium 
Barometz of different authors. The plant is a native of China, whence it was introduced 
to this country by J. Reeves, Esq., and was afterwards received by Messrs. Loddiges, 
Nurserymen, Hackney. 
A very strange account is given of this curious plant in “ Burnett’s Outlines of Botany,” 
extracted from “ Stray’s Travels through Russia, Tartary,” &c., published about the middle 
of the seventeenth century. It is as follows : — “ On the western side of the Volga there is 
an elevated salt plain of vast extent, but wholly uncultivated and uninhabited. On this 
plain, which furnishes all the neighbouring countries with salt, grows the Boranez or 
Bornitsch. This wonderful plant has the shape and appearance of a lamb, with feet, 
head, and tail, distinctly formed. Its skin is covered with a very white down as soft as 
silk. The Tartars and Muscovites esteem it highly, and preserve it with great care in 
their houses. The lamb grows on a stalk about three feet high, and is capable of turning 
itself about, and feeding on the herbage: and should this fail the plant dries up, pines 
away, and dies ; they are eaten by wolves, and have bones, blood, and flesh, like those of 
ordinary animals, hence the plant was considered a Zoophite or Plant- Animal.” 
This wonderful story, like many others, as Mr. Burnett very justly observes, has been 
found by subsequent travellers and Botanists to have been founded on very slender 
pretensions. The rhizome certainly spreads 
over the surface of the ground, and becomes 
of a large size, — rising to a considerable 
height ; — it is covered with a silky fleece 
of a yellowish brown colour, not much 
unlike that of the Davallia canariensis, or 
Hare’s-foot Fern; — and the sap when 
squeezed out violently is somewhat tinged 
with red, and might therefore be likened 
to blood ; but the rhizome can scarcely be 
supposed to assume the rude form of a 
lamb (fig. a), without some artificial means 
being used ; possibly, a full grown rhizome 
turned upside down, with the fronds cut off, 
having four pieces of the leaf-stalks remain- 
ing to answer for legs would represent some such appearance. We have specimens 
growing in the rock-work on the 
north-east end of the Great Con- 
servatory at Chatsworth. They 
grow to a large size, and the 
frondose leaves are numerous, 
and wide-spreading. One of 
these plants, (fig. b ) we measured 
during the autumn of 1848 ; and 
one of the fronds was more than 
8 feet long, with eight branches 
of pinnae, which were 5 feet in 
diameter at the base, tapering 
gradually to the extremity. 
It is plain from geological 
observations and discoveries, that, 
in the earlier ages of the world, 
Ferns were not only far more 
numerous than at present, but 
were likewise of a more gigantic 
