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 Bhape as the sorus, 
formed of the reflexed margin of the fronds bearing the capsules 
on its under side, veins free. (Beddome.) 
1349. A. lunulatum, Burm. 
Ref. : — Beddome’s Handbook to the Ferns of Br. In., &c. p. 82. 
Vern : — K&li-jhdut (B. and H.) ; Mubirak ; rajhansor hansraj 
(Bomb.) ; Ghorakhuri (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 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.’’ 
174 
