CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Scolopendrium 315 



twelve or eighteen inches high, stalked, lanceolate, acute, of a 

 full grass green, entire, or somewhat wavy, smooth, except the 

 stalk, and back of the midrib, which are shaggy with narrow 

 membranous scales ; the base heartshaped, but not dilated in 

 breadth ; the summit occasionally cut into a number of seg- 

 ments, more or less deep ; sometimes the margin is considerably 

 crisped and jagged. Masses of fructification chiefly about the 

 upper half of each frond, obliquely transverse, parallel, various 

 in length, either quite linear and narrow, or shorter and broader, 

 slightly elliptical, tumid, of innumerable small brown capsules, 

 the linear, uninterrupted, membranous covers, which in an early 

 state had folded over them, remaining, one at each side, nearly 

 erect. 

 When bruised, the whole plant has a nauseous scent j to the taste 

 , it is mucilaginous and acrid. The medical virtues formerly at- 

 tributed to this Fern being now entirely disregarded, I prefer 

 its old appellation, vulgare, as a specific name, to a more 

 modern one which might lead to an erroneous idea of its use 

 in medicine. 



2. S. Ceterach. Scaly Hart's-tongue. Rough Spleen- 

 wort. 



Frond pinnatifid ; scaly at the back. 



S. Ceterach. Sym.SynA93. Fl. Br. I \34. Engl.Bot.v.\8.t.]244. 



Roth Germ. V. 3. 48. 

 Scolopendrion. Cord. Hist. 171.2./. 



Scolopendria vera. Trag.Hist.55].f. Tabern. Kreuterb. Il9\.f. 

 Ceterach officinarum. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. 136. Bauh. Pin. 354. 

 Grammitis Ceterach. Sw. Syn. Fit. 23. Hook. Scot. p. 2. 153. 

 Asplenium Ceterach. Linn. Sp. PL ]538. Huds.4b2. Lightf.66l. 



Sibth.4]4. Bolt. Fil. 20. t.\2. Bull. Fr. t.383. Elirh: Crypt. 21 \. 

 A. n. 1694. Hall. Hist. V. 3. 10. 

 A. aive Ceterach. Raii Syn. 1 1 8. Ger. Em. 1 1 40./. Bauh. Hist. 



V. 3. p. 2. 741./. Moris, v. 3. 561. sect. 14. t.2.f. Plum. Fil. 



pr ef. 33. t.B.f. 3. 

 A. vulgare. Barrel. Ic. t. 1043. 

 A. Scolopendria. Lob. /c. 807./ 

 Asplenum. Matth. Vcdgr. v.2. 25 1 . / Camer. Epit. 640./ Dalech. 



Hist. 1215./ 



On limestone rocks, or old walls. 



Plentiful about Bristol, as Ray observed j especially about the 



Hot Wells, and on old walls between that place and the Severn. 



At Malham, Yorkshire, and in Wales. Richardson. On Heydon 



church, Norfolk. Rev. H. Bryant. At Nunney, Somersetshire. 



Bishop of Carlisle. On the hill of Kinnoul, Perthshire. Lightf. 



I have specimens from thence. In the north of England the 



plant is far from uncommon. 



