Lamb (The Vegetable) or Tartarian lamb;

technically called Polypodium Barometz. It is a Chinese fern with a decumbent root, covered with a soft, dense yellow wool. Sir Hans Sloane, who calls it the Tartarian lamb, has given a print of it; and Dr. Hunter has given a print which makes its resemblance to a lamb still more striking. The down is used in India for staunching hæmorrhage.

“Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends,

And round and round her flexile neck she bends;

Crops the grey coral moss, and hoary thyme,

Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime;

Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,

And seems to bleat, a Vegetable Lamb.”

Darwin: Loves of the Plants, 283, etc.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.