THE COMMON SCALE FERN, 



OR SCALY SPLEENWOET. 

 Asplenium Ceterach.* LINN.EUS. 



Ceteracli, the botanical name of this genus (of which 

 there is only one British species), is said to be a cor- 

 ruption of CTietherak, the name given to it by Arabian 

 or Persian medical writers. Its old English designa- 

 tion of Milt-wast is said also to be a corruption : the 

 Milt being the Spleen, and wast said to be from waste, 

 because of some story of its destroying the spleen, 

 but more probably, as Bailey puts it in his good old 

 dictionary, "Milt-wast, wort, 

 Herbs" (making toast the 

 synonym of wort, a herb), 

 Milt-wast is simply Spleen- 

 wort, and no corruption at 

 all. It was also called Finger 

 Feme, "because," says Turner 

 in his Herbal (1551), "it 

 is no longer than a manne's 

 finger," and Scale Feme, " be- 

 cause it is all full of scales 

 in the inner syde. " The 

 Scaly Milt-wast or Spleen- 

 wort, growing generally about 

 the size of " a manne's finger, " sometimes not 



* Ceterach officinarum (Willdenow), Scolopendrium Ceteracli, 

 Gymnogramma Ceterach, Blechnum squainosurn, &c. 



