FERN POSSIBILITIES 309 



woe. An Englishman, Coles, declares that "if the 

 asse be oppressed with melancholic he eates of this 

 herbe, and so eases himself of the swelling of the 

 spleene," and this belief in the plant's special efficacy 

 for the relief of the splenetic, asinine or human, 

 was generally held from very early days. It was 

 also applied outwardly to wounds, its rough scaly 

 under side being applied to staunch and dry up 

 the cut or bruise. The little wall-rue spleenwort 

 is very generally distributed and attaches itself very 

 kindly to one's rock-work. When found at all it 

 is generally in profusion, tufts of it sprouting out 

 from every interstice of the rock or from all the 

 mortar joints of some old wall, so that the whole 

 becomes verdant. 



Other species that have found a welcome home 

 with us are the oak fern, the broad shield fern and 

 its near relative the prickly shield fern, the black 

 spleenwort and wall-rue ; but this bare enumeration 

 is probably by no means exhaustive. To dwell at 

 length upon all the pleasant possibilities in fern 

 culture is needless needless even to enumerate the 

 species available to us. It suffices to say that 

 amidst the many and very varied species that we 

 may encounter in our journeyings there is not one 

 that will not be a source of pleasure, and which will 

 not amply repay any little trouble that its transfer to 

 our domain may temporarily give us. 



Amongst unbidden yet welcome guests many 



