ASPLENIUM. 



515 



abundantly ; on limestone rocks in Lath Hill Dale and in Dove Dale, in 

 Derbyshire ; on walls in quarries at Ludlow, in Shropshire ; at Cheddar, 

 Malvern Abbey, and Bath ; at Topsham and other places in Devonshire j on the 

 tower of old Arlesford Church, in Hampshire ; on an old wall near Cowley, 

 in Oxfordshire ; and in many places in Norfolk, Suffolk, Gloucestershire, 

 and Hertfordshire. In fact, it is abundant in the West and North-west of 

 England ; whereas in the East it is comparatively rare. It is to this day 

 met with on the walls of a ruin at Treborth, near Bangor ; but in Denbigh- 

 shire and some other parts of Wales, where it was formerly very plentiful, 

 the Scale Fern has become nearly extinct, for, although abandoned as 

 a medicinal plant — its wonderful liver-healing properties being now entirely 

 discarded — it has been largely used as a bait for rock-cod fishing on the coast 

 of Wales. The Rev. Hugh Davies states that, owing to its consumption 

 for that purpose, it has become very scarce about Holyhead, where it once 

 nourished and was found in great abundance. In Ireland, where it is most 

 plentiful, and where it is seen growing most luxuriantly, it has been collected 

 on stone walls, which it completely covers, near Cork and Kilkenny ; on 

 the ruins of Saggard Church, on Cave Hill, and at Headford, in Galway. It 

 is also indigenous in Jersey and in the Isle of Wight. 



The success in the cultivation of this, one of the prettiest and most 

 interesting of all our native Ferns, depends mostly on the situation in which 

 it is placed. Some sound advice as to its culture, given more than twenty- 

 five years ago, being now as good as it was then, we cannot refrain from 

 quoting therefrom. Mr. Charles Johnson, speaking of A. Ceterach, says : " It 

 is not at all easy to cultivate this Fern successfully ; it is too impatient of 

 confinement to live long in a greenhouse, and the cold frame, so useful for 

 the protection of other half-hardy species, is almost certain death to this. 

 The metropolitan cultivator is told that London air disagrees with it, and 

 yet the only plant of it I possessed in my early career lived in a nook of an 

 old wall in a back area in Hatton Garden for several years, and may be there 

 still, unless eradicated by repair. Sun never reached it, and ancient mortar, 

 which, through being constantly moist, had somewhat the consistence of paste, 

 probably agreed with its constitution — a very important point to be studied 

 in planting, as when left to its own selection, or in the wild state, it seems 

 universally to prefer a calcareous habitat. Whether planted - in the open 



