Flora Medica

FILICALES.on the upper side of the rhizoma, lanceolate, plane, slightly undulated,thick, stiff, brittle, shining, from 9 inches to 3 feet long, covered on theupper surface with fine pellucid dots stalk ; long, semicylindrical, naked ;veins horizontal. Sori round, in transverse simple lines. CalledPuntu-puntu in Peru. The rhizoma in infusion and decoction is employedas a sudorific. The samples should be compact, heavy, difficultto cut, of even fracture, red within, rusty or chesnut-coloured without.Ruiz.ADIANTUM.Thecse placed on the distinct points of the veins, in a linearor point-like receptacle, arranged in marginal sori. Indusiacontinuous with the edge of the leaf, united to the receptacle,opening inwards.1315. A. Capillus Veneris Linn, sp.pl 1558. E.Bot. t. 1564.Smith Eng. Fl. iv. 320. South of Europe common ;morerare in the North. (Maidenhair.)Rhizoma creeping, blackish, shaggy. Leaves 6-12 inches high, ormuch more, erect or drooping, alternately and doubly pinnate ;theirstalks slender, purplish-black, smooth and polished the alternate ones;quite capillary. Leaflets wedge or fan-shaped, entire at the base, theupper or outer margin variously jagged and lobed; when barren sharplyserrated, when fertile with each segment terminated by a roundish, flat,brown, thin indusium. The rhizoma, which is slightly astringent andaromatic, is considered pectoral ;but the decoction if very strong isreported to be emetic. Mixed with syrup it forms CapUlaire.1316. A. pedatum Linn, sp.pl. 1557. Schkuhr. crypt. 107.t. 115. Willd. sp. pi.v. 438. North America.Leaves pedate divisions ; pinnate ; pinnae halved, oblong, lunate,incised at the upper edge; the sterile segments toothed. Sori linear.Petiole smooth. According to Smith it is this species that is usedin the manufacture of Capillaire, and not the last; but as it does notgrow in the South of Europe I do not see how this statement can becorrect.PTERIS.Thecae arising from the points of veins, placed on a nerve-likereceptacle running along the edge of the leaf, forming an uninterruptedmarginal sorus. Involucres continuous with the edgeof the leaf, scarious, opening inwards.1317. P. nquilina Linn. sp. pi. 1533. E.Bot. t. 1679. SmithEng. Fl. iv. 318. Heaths, thickets, woods, &c. in Europe.(Brake.)Rhizoma long, tapering, creeping ; externally black. Leaves erect,from 1 to 6 feet high, repeatedly compound, with horizontally spreadingdivisions, whose ribs are smooth ;the primary ones nearly opposite ;the next more alternate, deeply pinnatifid, with crowded, lanceolate,bluntish, convex, parallel segments ; the odd one generally much thelargest ; lateral ones sometimes greatly diminished ; all of a light bright618