[ 1458 ]
t 6.
ASPIDIUM Filix mas.
Male Shield-fern.
CRYPTOGAMIA Filices.
Gen. Char. Fructifications scattered, in roundish
dots, not marginal. Involucrum umbilicated,
bursting almost all round.
Spec. Char. Frond bipinnate; leaflets obtuse, serrated.
Stalk scaly. Involucrum circular.
Syn. Aspidium Filix mas. Swartz. Fil. 38. Sm. FI.
Brit. 1121.
Polypodium Filix mas. Linn. Sp. PI. 1551. Muds. 458.
With. 775. Hull. 238. Relh. 411. Sibth. 270.
Abbot. 226. Bolt. Fil. 44. t. 24. Woodv. Med.
Bot. t. 49. Dicks. H. Sicc.fasc. 3. 19.
Filix mas vulgaris. Raii Syn. 120.
V e r y common in dry hedge bottoms and other shady places,
where as it unrolls its scaly buds in the spring it excites notice
by its singularity. When fully grown, and covered with its
innumerable spots of future seeds in June and July, it forms
a handsome tuft, not unlike an ostrich plume.
The root is perennial, large, scaly, tufted, not creeping.
Fronds 3 feet high, lanceolate, with brown scaly stalks, and
composed of numerous compound leaves, whose leaflets are
crowded, mostly alternate, oblong, smooth, obtuse, serrated,
the serratures without bristles or spines. Dots of capsules in
a single row on each side, near the rib, not reaching much
more than half the length of each leaflet. Each dot is covered
by a strong durable crenated scale, fixed by the side
towards the base of the leaflet, but bursting all round, so as
to become circular as the capsules swell. We have already
announced the establishment of the genus Aspidium in v. 1 6 .
1149.
The root of this species is a famous Swiss cure for worms;
and we are told its nauseous and peculiar taste is perceptible
in a quack medicine at present popular.
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