At the same time, as its specific name indicates,Huperzia selago was
widely identified with a herb recorded by Pliny the Elder in his Natural His-
tory (Book 24, Section 62) as valued by the druids of Gaul for its ‘smoke’,
which they held to be efficacious for eye ailments. Although some authors^3
have held that Pliny’s selago was much more probably a kind of juniper, there
are records from the Highlands^4 and Cornwall^5 of the use of ‘club-moss’ as an
allegedly folk medicine for treating the eyes. In both those areas, though, this
use was either as a fomentation or in an ointment rubbed on the eyelids:
‘smoke’, i.e. the spores, does not feature. Certain ritual prescribed for collect-
ing and preparing clubmoss for this particular purpose could be evidence
that this is a genuine survival in folk tradition; equally, though, the use could
have been taken over, maybe in the distant past, from Classical medicine via
the herbals.
Strengthening the likelihood that use for the eyes is an import from the
learned tradition is the fact that other uses traced in the folk records are for
quite unrelated ailments: as an emetic, an emmenagogue and a skin tonic in
the Highlands,^6 and for ‘any sickness’ in the Outer Hebrides.^7
Lycopodium clavatum Linnaeus
stag’s-horn clubmoss
temperate zones, tropical mountains
A herb featuring in two Cardiganshire uses, for ‘the back’ (which sometimes
refers to a kidney complaint) and for a cold or sore throat respectively, has
been botanically identified as Lycopodium clavatum.^8
EQUISETACEAE
Equisetum Linnaeus
horsetail
cosmopolitan except Australasia
As the recommendation ofEquisetum as a vulnerary goes back to Galen in
Classical medicine, its status in the folk records would look more suspicious
were it not for the impressive concentration of those in parts of Britain that
were heavily settled from Scandinavia. Only in the Highlands and/or Western
Isles,^9 and the Isle of Man,^10 moreover, do one or more species of this genus
feature for staunching the flow of blood (apparently because the minutely
rough surface of these plants stimulates clotting). In Yorkshire, equisetums
have served as a wash to a bad back,^11 in the Shetlands as an indigestion rem-
edy^12 and in the Isle of Man also as a diuretic.^13
Pteridophytes and Conifers 55