Polipodium, Polypody

“The Radix Polypodii is one of those Roots that do not descend perpendicularly into the Earth, but creep under the Surface; this indeed very frequently in great Part upon the Surface, though sometimes bury’d an Inch or more in Depth. It is a very singularly shaped Root, and is easily known from all the other medicinal ones at Sight: It is of an oblong but irregular Figure, of the Thickness of a large Goose-Quill, sometimes of one’s little Finger: It is three, four, or more Inches in Length, and is sometimes single, but frequently branch’d, and is every where of the same, or nearly the same Thickness : Its Surface is extremely rough and irregular, usually crooked or contorted more or less, and has a number of irregular Dents and Protuberances in it. It is sometimes naked, but more usually it is cover’d with a rough fibrous Matter; from its lower Part it always sends out a great number of Fibres: Its Colour on the Surface is a dusky brown, within it is greenish; it has no very remarkable Smell, but is of a sweetish Taste when first taken into the Mouth, after wards somewhat austere, and upon the whole very nauseous.

The Plant which rises from it is one of the Cryptogamia of Linnæus, and one of the Herbe Epiphyllosperme of Ray. It is common with us on the Banks of Ditches where there are Stumps of old Trees, on Walls, and by the Sides of Woods; what grows on the Oak has been esteem’d like the Mistletoe of the same Tree, to have more Virtue than what is found in any other Place, but it is observable that very little of it is found on the Stump of that Tree; and it is somewhat strange, that the Oak, a Tree whose Juices are all of the astringent
Kind, and that in a very high Degree, should be suppos’d to add to the Virtue of a purging Root by its growing over it.

The Plant grows to six, eight, or ten Inches high; it consists only of a single Leaf, several of which arise from the different Parts of the Root, and each of which is a distinct and perfect Plant; this Leaf is form’d of a small but tough Stalk, which from the Middle upwards, or for more than the upper half, becomes a middle Rib, beset on each Side with oblong and narrow Pinna, divided nearly to the Base; on the back of these are found a number of round yellowish Spots, disposed in a regular Order, which are the Congeries of the Seed-Vessels of the Plant.

Polypody Root, chemically analysed, yields first a large Quantity of a colourless Phlegm, of a faint Smell, and of an insipid Taste, but with some obscure Acidity in it; after this rises a more acid Phlegm, then a colour’d Liquor of an empyreumatic Smell, and austere Taste; and after this a small Portion of a reddish Liquor, with a strongly empyreumatic Flavour, and with a Taste of a volatile Alkali in it; after this comes over a moderately large Quantity of an Oil, somewhat thick and of a brown Colour, and strongly empyreumatic Smell. The Remainder in the Retort is a light black Coal, which, alkin’d and lixiviated, yields a ſmall Quantity of a fix’d Salt, but that not of
the alkaline, but merely of the Sal Salsus Kind.

Polypody has been at all Times celebrated for Its Virtues in Medicine: It stands in the rank of purging Roots, but its cathartic Virtue is so small, that it is not to be given alone in this Intention, though join’d with other Purges it is not without its Use. It is attenuating and dissolvent, and has been found of great Service in Obstructions of the Viscera. It is given in purging Diet-drinks, in scorbutic, and in hypochondriac Cases with Success; it is alſo an Ingredient in the Lenitive Electuary, and in several other of the officinal Compositions”. (A History of the Materia Medica, Hill, 1751)