514 THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



plant is exposed to a certain degree of moisture. As an example of its 

 extreme tenacity of life, we may here quote a statement made more than 

 a quarter of a century ago by Dr. Daubeny, then Professor of Agriculture at 

 Oxford, and which we find reproduced in " Les Fougeres rustiques," the 

 excellent work of Mons. H. Correvon, who says : "A lady in Ireland 

 found among her dry specimens one of Grammitis Ceterach {Ceterach 



officinarum,) , which had been two 

 years in a portfolio in a dry, warm 

 room, and after planting it in a pot 

 and covering it close, she had the 

 satisfaction of seeing it come to life 

 again ; first a fresh young frond 

 coming up, after which the plant 

 grew and continued to flourish and 

 develop." — Hooker, Species Filicum, 

 iil, p. 273. Nicholson, Dictionary 

 ng, 83. Aspienium Ceterach °f Gardening, i., p. 129. Lowe, Our 



(inat. size). Native Ferns, ii., t. 57. Beddome, 



Ferns of Southern India, t. 143. 

 As a native Fern, A. Ceterach is found growing on walls and ruins from 

 the sea -level to an altitude of 600ft. In the first part of his " Herbal," 

 published in 1551, Turner, the first writer who describes it as an English 

 plant, says : " It groweth muche in Germanye, in old moiste walles and in 

 rockes ; it groweth also in England about Bristowe (Bristol)." He adds : 

 " I have heard no English name of this herbe, but it maye well be called in 

 English Ceteracke, or Miltwaste, or Finger Feme, because it is no longer 

 than a manne's finger, or Scale Feme, because it is all full of scales on the 

 innersyde. It has leaves lyke in figure unto Scolopendra, the beste, which, 

 also called Centipes, is not unlyke a great and rough palmer's worme." 

 Although found in a wild state in most parts of the British Islands, the Scale 

 Fern occurs less frequently in Sco+land, where, however, it has been found on 

 Drumlaurig Castle, in Dumfries-shire ; on the ruins of Iona, and at Kinnoul 

 Hill, near Perth. In England it has been gathered in counties situated 

 far apart, and in localities which, so far as climate and situation are concerned, 

 have no similarity — such as Settle, in Yorkshire, where it used to grow 



