CRYPTOG AMI A FILICES. 1 T 



found in Berwickshire. (On Melrose Abbey, abundant.) 

 June Oct. 7/ 



6. SCOLOPENDRIUM. 



1 . S. vulgare, frond simple, broadly lanceolate, smooth, heart- 

 shaped at the base ; stalk shaggy. Common Hart's tongue. 



Hab. On shaded rocks. In Dunglas-Den, Dr Parsons. 

 " Pigeon's Cove near the Needle-eye," Thomp. On 

 an old garden-wall at Netherbyres, Rev. A. Baird. Near 

 Chillingham, James Mitchell, Esq. R. N. On a cave 

 between Fast-Castle and Redheugh by the sea shore ; 

 and on rocks by the water-side below the Pease Bridge. 

 July. 1J. 



" In the moat at Kenilworth Castle," says Dr HOOKER, " I 

 have gathered this handsome fern more than 2 feet long ;" 

 a size not superior to that of specimens which I have seen 

 from the neighbourhood of Fast- Castle. These large spe- 

 cimens were the hangings of a cave never illumined by the 

 sun's rays ; and indeed the freedom and vigour with which 

 this, and some other Ferns, grow in these gloomy places, is 

 a remarkable fact in their history. 



T. BLECHNUM. 



1. B. boreale, smooth; fronds lanceolate, pinnate, pectinate; 

 the leaves of tne sterile ones linear-lanceolate, entire, opposite 

 towards the base, becoming semi-alternate ; those of the fertile 

 frond all very narrow, pointed and alternate. 



Hab. In deans and on heaths, in spreading dark green cir- 

 cular tufts, common. July. I/. 



This very elegant fern has received the name of Rough Spleen- 

 wort for its reputed virtues in diseases of the spleen, con- 

 cerning which GERARDE speaks in a tone of scepticism most 

 unusual with him. " There be Empiricks or blinde prac- 

 titioners of this age, who teach, that with this herbe not 

 onely the hardnesse and swelling of the Spleene, but all 

 infirmities of the liuer also may be effectually, and in very 

 short time remooued, insomuch that the sodden liuer of a 

 beast is restored to his former constitution againe, that is, 

 made like unto a raw liuer, if it bee boyled againe with this 

 herbe. But this is to be reckoned among the old wiues 

 fables, and that also which DIOSCORIDES telleth of, touch- 

 ing the gathering of Spleenewort in the night, and other 



