FERN TRIBE.
575
s . v mptoms which manifest themselves, and must be conducted on general principles,(fror further information respecting poisonous fungi, consult Christison ’s Treatise onPoisons).
Order 4. Lycopodia'ce^e, Be Cand. —The Club-Moss Tribe.
Fig. 81.
4
^Notification of Lycopodiaceec.
°n°
The powder sold in the shops as Lycopodium , witch-meal, or vegetable sulphur, is procured from Lycopodiumclavatum (common club-moss). It consists of extremelysmall pale yellow particles, fig. 81, b (sporulesF pol-len F F) which, in the plant, are contained in two valved,one-celled capsules, a ( thecee, sporangia ? anthers ? F)lodged, in the axillae of the bracteal leaves. It is some-times employed in medicine as a dusting powder forchildren; and, in pharmacy, for enveloping pills toprevent their adhesion.
Order 5. Fil'ices, Juss. —The Fern Tribe.
E
s sential Character. —Herbaceous plants with a perennial rhizome, more rarelyhaving an erect arborescent trunk [when they are called tree terns, filices arboreee ;
fig. 82] : trunk coated, of a prosen-chymatous structure, with the entirecylinder of w r oody fasciculi dividedinto two concentric parts, the onenarrow, placed between the barkand the wood, the other larger, cen-tral, medullary, sending fasciculi ofvessels towards the petioles, and com-municating with the exterior bymeans of chinks in the woodycylinder. Leaves [frondes] scat-tered upon the rhizome or rosaceo-fasciculate on the apex of the caudex,with circinnate vernation, annual orperennial, the base of the petiolespersistent, growing to the caudex ;simple or pinnate, entire or pinna-tified, [equal-]veined, (the veinscomposed of elongated cells), fre-quently having cuticular stomata.Sporangia [theca], placed on theveins of the back or margin of theleaves, collected in little naked heaps[sori], or covered with a membra-nous scale [ indusium ], or transmutedmargin of the leaf, pedicellate [withthe stalk (seta), passing round them inthe form of an elastic ring (annulus)],or sessile, unilocular, indefinitely de-hiscent. Spores [spondee] numerous,free, globose, or angular, in germi-nation at first elongated in everyCuj^jon, Growing out radicles downward, and the cauliculus upward (Endlicher,
p Plant).
4 f 0 r °.I“ert ie s.—T he leaves are mucilaginous, and frequently slightly astringent andW at ' c - The rhizomes contain starch, usually tannic acid with more or less bittera s J er » and sometimes both fixed and volatile oil, with some resin. They are mild,'hat Ernies. The rhizome of Nephrodium Filix mas is celebrated as a vermifuge;di— 0 Poli/podium Caliguala as a diaphoretic and diuretic in rheumatic and venereals es (vide Lambert’s lllustr. of the genus Cinchona , p. 125, 1821).
Fig. 82.
A Tree Fern.
dm,—
W I
.tiY 11 ' '■