Degener (2) reports that the Hawaiians used the wawaeiole (“rat’s foot”) as a relief for rheumatism, the sufferer bathing in water in which the plants had been boiled for about three hours.
(62-63) MOA OR PIPI
The Psilotum is a primitive plant, of which two species are found in the Hawaiian Islands. One is the MOA, which usually grows on the ground and has stems which fork many times near the ends. The second, the PIPI, often grows upon the trunks of trees and ferns. This species normally grows perpendicular to the trunk, then curves abruptly earthward like the tail of a horse. Degener (2, p. 18) states that the MOA was used by the Hawaiians in making a medicine for treatment of a fungus disease, as an emetic, and that the spores were used as a powder to relieve chafing from the malo, or loincloth.
SCIENTIFIC NAMES OF FERNS DESCRIBED HEREIN
(Numbers follow common names in the captions. Because of numerous recent studies of ferns, various name changes have been necessary, and on some names there is still disagreement. The following list adopts mainly the nomenclature of the GENERA FILICUM by Prof. Edwin B. Copeland, 1947. The indented names are ones which have been used for the same plants in the past.)
FAMILY OPHIOGLOSSACEAE
(1) Ophioglossum petiolatum Hooker
(2) Ophioglossum nudicaule Linnaeus fils
(3) Ophioglossum pendulum esp. falcatum (Presl) Clausen (LAUKAHI)
O. falcatum (Presl) Fowler