ears in some, districts the name of
"Robin Hood's hatband." Its unmoistenable powder from the
spores is a capital absorbing application to weeping, raw surfaces.
At the shops, this [116] powder of the Club Moss spores is sold as
"witch meal," or "vegetable sulphur." For trade purposes it is
obtained from the ears of a Wolfsfoot Moss, the Lycopodium
clavatum, which grows in the forests of Russia and Finland. The
powder is yellow of colour, dust-like and smooth to the touch.
Half a drachm of it given during July in any proper vehicle has
been esteemed "a noble remedy to cure stone in the bladder."
Being mixed with black pepper, it was recognized by the College
of Physicians in 1721 as a medicine of singular value for
preventing and curing hydrophobia. Dr. Mead, who had repeated
experience of its worth, declared that he never knew it to fail when
combined with cold bathing.

Club Moss powder ignites with a flicker, and is used for stage
lightning. It is the _Blitzmehl_, or lightning-meal of the Germans,
who give it in doses of from fifteen to twenty grains for the cure of
epilepsy in children.

When the "Mortal Struggle" was produced (see _Nicholas Nickleby_)
by Mr. Vincent Crummles at Portsmouth, with the aid of Miss
Snevelicci, and the Infant Phenomenon, lurid lightning was
much in request to astonish the natives; and this was sufficiently
well simulated by igniting, with a sudden flash and a hiss,
highly inflammable spores of the Club Moss projected against
burning tow within a hollow cone, producing weird scenic effects.

COLTSFOOT.

The Coltsfoot, which grows abundantly throughout England in
places of moist, heavy soil, especially along the sides of our raised
railway banks, has been justly termed "nature's best herb for the
lungs, and her most eminent thoracic." Its seeds are supposed to
have lain [117] dormant from primitive times, where our railway
cuttings now upturn them and set them growing anew; and the
rotting foliage of the primeval herb by retaining its juices, is
thought to have promoted the development and growth of our
common earthworm.

The botanical name of Coltsfoot is _Tussilago farfara_, signifying
_tussis ago_, "I drive away a cold"; and _farfar_, the white poplar
tree, which has a similar leaf. It is one of the Composite order, and
the older authors named this plant, _Filius ante patrem_--"the son
before the father," because the flowers appear and wither before
the leaves are produced.