1MJRXS AND MOSSES. 121 
authors, to the generic name of which Murate ycrmanicum 
and Atternifolium were assigned by Gray, NVilldenow, 
AVulfen, Smith, and Francis. 
Few plants are more generally diffused than the Rue- 
loaved Spleenwort. Growing abundantly among the rocky 
liills of Scotland in a perfectly wild state, one of its favourite 
localities is Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh, and thither the 
lover of ferns often hastens to seek for it. One might 
imagine that the pure breezes, and warm gleams of sun- 
shine, that visit Cader Idris and Snowdon, would favour the 
growth of this pleasing fern, but such is not the case ; 
travellers who seek for it among those romantic solitudes 
will find it growing but sparingly. Yet, notwithstanding 
this restriction, the same fern is common throughout the 
northern, western, and southern counties of England, as also 
in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where it is found on almost 
i- very ruin, old church, or wall, or bridge, whether of brick 
or stone. The dweller among crowded houses, and the hurry 
of " street-pacing steeds," who still retains his healthy love 
of ferns, may readily discover the Rue-leaved spleenwort on 
the walls of Greenwich Park, though more abundantly 
rooted in the crumbling mortar that fills interstices in the 
brick portion of the wall, than in the stone. Like the mouse 
and sparrow, half-domesticated associates. of man, it dwells 
wherever he has fixed his abode ; associated equally with 
memorial ruins and the humblest way-side hut, recalling to 
memory days of feudal splendour, and the peaceful occupa- 
tions of rural life. 
The roots of the Asplenium ruta muraria are black and 
wiry ; the rhizoma is equally black tufted also, and clothed 
with bristly scales. Associated with the coming back of mi- 
gratory birds, and the ripening of early fruits, the fronds 
appear in May and June, arrive at maturity in September, 
and continue green throughout the winter till the ensuing 
May. They are invariably fertile. The rachis is black or 
dark purple, smooth and shining, and for more than half its 
