FERNS AND MOSSES. 
87 
scarce in places frequented by fishermen, being in great re-- 
quest for bait in rock-eod fishing. 
Dioscorides celebrates the medicinal virtues of this fern, 
as affording an almost universal panacea. 
The Asplenium trichomanes, or common Spleenwort of 
botanists, is very generally diffused. You may gather it 
COMMON BPLEENWOBT. 
from moist rocks in mountain solitudes, on old walls, and 
beside rushing torrents, on bamcs, n neagerows, ana from 
the gothic windows of dismantled abbeys, where a scanty 
supply of earth, in some small crevice, affords a resting- 
place for its tiny roots. Newman once observed the same 
plant in the valley of the Wye, near the small town of Bualt, 
growing in such profusion on a bri.lge as to form a con- 
tinuous covering of green ; and truly, said he, ' ' There is 
scarcely anything in the vegetable world more beautiful 
than such a sight." He recommends its cultivation, and 
assures his readers that the effect produced on the biidge by 
natural growth, may speedilj be realized at home. Imagine 
an unsightly wall, or a heap of stones still more unsightly, 
