84 
BRITISH FERNS. 
ceased to employ the Adder’s-tongue ; thus the first time 
I found the small fern, I was guided to it by an old 
Wiltshire woman, a dealer in “ simples;” and Miss 
Attwood writes, that in Herefordshire they employ the 
Adder’s-tongue in making “May ointment.” The old 
herbalists praise this ointment very much, and some of 
them ascribe similar virtues to that made from the 
Moonwort ; but all receipts regarding the use of that 
fern partake largely of the fabulous and superstitious. 
In the allied group, Lycopodiacece , we have various 
species used medicinally. The most useful in every re- 
spect is the Lycopodium clavatum , or common Club-moss. 
It is believed to be a remedy for that terrible Polish dis- 
ease, called Plica; and in the homoeopathic practice it 
is said to be applicable to so many symptoms, that in 
reading over the list one receives an impression that all 
the ills this poor flesh is heir to might be cured, or at 
any rate alleviated, by the Lycopodium tincture . But 
in carefully considering the symptoms so particularly 
enumerated, they resolve themselves into the features of 
a class of nervous disorders in which weakness of the 
eyes, headache, and nervous debility are the outward 
and visible signs. The new Pharmacopoeia gives the 
following directions for gathering the herb : — “ The fruit 
containing the yellow spores furnishes the officinal part 
of the plant. We gather the powder from the plant by 
roasting and beating it, towards the end of summer. It 
is a powder extremely fine, pale yellow, unctuous to the 
touch, inodorous, immiscible in water, on which it floats; 
it is often adulterated with the pollen of the pine, saw- 
dust, chalk, lime, or other powders coloured by gamboge. 
In this last particular the fraud may be detected by a 
solution of potash, which gives a red tint to the Lyco- 
