ASPIDIA'R1A (Pres!). Several species of the Lepidodendra of Sternberg are thus named. They are from the Coal Formation.
ASPI'DlUM, a genus of Ferns, and oue under which many species were arranged by older botanists, which aro now placed under new genera. [Potveonaace.e.] One of the most remarkable species of this genus is the Aspidium Buromez, or Tart:trial; Lamb, which has been referred by Mr. Smith to the genus Camtium. This plant, from its peculiar colour and form, was at one time really supposed to be a kind of vegetable animal, as the following account from Struys, an old traveller, proves :—" On the western side of the Volga," he says, "there is an elevated salt plain of vent extent, but wholly uncultivated and uninhabited. On this plain, which furnishes all the neighbouring countries with salt, grows the Berm= or Bornitech. This wonderful plant has the shape and appearance of a lamb, with feet, head, and tail distinctly formed. Boranez, in the language of Muscovy, signifies a little lamb, and a similar name is given this plant. Its skin is covered with very white down as soft as silk. The Tartars and Muscovites esteem it highly, and preserve it with great care in their houses, where I have seen many such lambs. The sailor who gave me one of these precious plants found it iu a wood, and I had its skin made into an under.waistcoat 1 learned at Astracan, from those who were best acquainted with the subject, that the lamb grows upon a stalk about three feet high ; that the part by which it is sustained is a kind of navel, and that it turns itself round, and bends down to the herbage which serves for its food. They also said it dries up and pines away when the gntss fails." Struys adds many other wonderful things about this plant. His statement is however substantially correct. The rhizome. of time A. Baromez, presents n rude resemblance to an animal. It is covered with a silky down, and when cut into has a soft inside with a reddish flesh-coloured appearance, sufficient to account for the origin of the fables with regard to its animal nature. Is is not improbable that this fern dries up when the grass does, but of course the one has no dependence on the other. The Baromez possesses the astringent property which in common to all ferns; hence it has been used as it styptic.
Aspidiu Filix-Mas (now Lastrma Filix-Mae), the Male Fern, is a native of Great Britain, and is admitted into the British Pharmaco pceias on account of its anthelmintic properties. It has bipimmto
fronds, obtuse and serrated pine des, the sod near the central nerve, the "lateral nerves forked. It is abundant throughout Europe, and grows in stony places on the skirts of woods, in open and roadsides. The part used in medicine is the root, or rather the root stock. This part of the plant is collected for medicinal purposes between the end of May and the middle of September. It will not keep well, and should be renewed at least every two years. It has often been chemically analysed, and is found to contain Ligniu . ..... . . 45 Starch . . . . • . . . 10 Uneryetalliaable Sugar . . . . 10 Gum . . . . . . . . 10 Fixed Oil . . . . . . .
Resin . . . . . . . . 4 Salts, Volatile Oil . . . . .
100 The ancients used this plant as a vermifuge, but it was nearly given up by modern practitioners of medicine when Peachier pointed out the conditions in which Ito had found it efficacious in expelling tape worm. The best mode of ntIministering it is as en etherial tincture; the ether seems to dissolve the resinous oil on which the active pro perties of the plant depend. The dose of the root according to Pmchier is about one drachm.
A. dilatafuns (Lcutrtra (Mateo), a British fern, is often confounded with the last for medicinal purposes it has nub-tripinnate fronds; oblong, bloat, ineiso-pinnatifid lobes; spinose, mueronnto segments ; a deciduous unfringed indusiurn. This is n common fern, but leas generally dinned then the lent A. 1'i/ix-Pose ina (A thyrium Fikr-A(rminu), Lady-Fern, lets a lancet), late pinnate frond ; pinnw linear, acute, regularly pinnate; pinnules linear-oblong, quite distinct, deeply serrate or pinnatifid ; segments with 2 or 3 teeth. This is one of the most beautiful of the British ferns. The root is sometimes gathered for that of the Male Fern. It has "a short perpendicular root-stock, black externally, with black root fibres; and the tufts or bases of the leafstalks, which compose the greater part of it, form a very acute angle with its axis, while those of the Male Shield-Fern extend outwards at a more open angle." (Christison.) (Burnett, Outlines of Botany; Babington, Manual of British Botany; Christison, Dispensatory.)