Tree Lungwort.
Muscus pulmonarius.
A broad and large kind of moss, in form some what resembling the green and grey liverwort, but bigger than either. It grows on the barks of old oaks, and beech trees, but is not common. It is principally found in large woods. Each leaf, or separate plant, is eight or ten inches long, and nearly as much in breadth, of a yellowish colour, and of a substance resembling leather: it is divided deeply at the edges, and is rough, and full of high veins on the surface. At the season of flowering there also appear certain small red heads, which contain the seeds for a new succession of plants.
This plant is not so much known as it deserves to be. It is an excellent astringent, a strong decoction of it stops the overflowings of the menses, and all other bleedings; it is remarkable against the spitting of blood, and hence it is got into general use in consumptions, but that not so properly. It may be given in powder, but the other way is better.
