8 4 
European Ferns. 
and origin of many plant-names is very obscure, especially as these names often refer to 
some supposed property or association of the plant upon which they are bestowed that is now 
forgotten ; just as the old ecclesiastical titles for plants have become obsolete and meaningless, 
now that the festivals which suggested them have ceased to occupy a prominent place in 
the religious life of the people. But to those who are gifted with a taste for antiquarian 
research, and are willing to take some little trouble in the pursuit of an object, there is plenty 
to be done in the way of investigating the names (and their meanings) of our common plants. 
How readily we may meet with a puzzle, even at the very outset of our journey, may be 
illustrated by the fact that the names Cowslip and Paigle, with which most of us are 
familiar enough, are still unexplained, the latter especially having had spent upon it a vast 
amount of speculative ability, with, as we venture to think, little if any advance towards 
a solution of the difficulty. 
Several species of Asplcnium , of which A. bulbiferum is a well-known type, offer good 
illustrations of viviparous plants — that is, they produce young plants upon the surface of their 
fronds, and when the latter fall to earth, these plants take root and assume an independent 
existence. We have already had occasion to refer to this phenomenon in connection with 
Carnptosorus rhizophyllus (figured at page 65), and also v/hen speaking of Woodwardia. 
Although the normal mode in which plants are propagated is by means of the seed, it 
cannot have escaped the notice of even a casual observer that there are other methods of 
perpetuating the species. The formation of seed is the result of an arrangement which recent 
researches into fertilisation have shown to be somewhat complex, and which may be in- 
terfered with in numerous ways. Many plants, indeed, seldom bring their seed to perfection, 
and Nature then — 
“ So careful of the type she seems, 
So careless of the single life ” 
supplies the deficiency in various ways ; or, where the deficiency does not exist, lavishly, 
bestows upon some favoured plant a double mode of increase. The strawberry, for example 
is propagated more by runners than by seed ; so is the sweet violet : other plants, such as the 
yellow loosestrife ( Lysimachia vulgaris) have underground suckers, which run along for some 
distance under ground and then send up new shoots ; others are mainly extended by the spread 
and division of the roots, such as the Great Bindweed ( Convolvulus sepium) ; others by division 
of the plant itself, as in the case of the American Waterweed (Anacharis Alsinaslrum), of 
which, in spite of its great abundance, the male plant has not yet been met with in England, 
so that it cannot be perpetuated by seed. 
Like most other ferns, the Aspleniums are useful rather than ornamental. Some of the 
British species were formerly credited with medicinal properties, as we shall see when we come 
to consider each of these in detail; and we have already described* the superstitious regard 
paid by the natives of New Zealand to A. lucidum. But it must be confessed that the genus 
is sufficiently beautiful to find in that fact ample support to its claims to attention ; and we may 
well regard this beauty as compensating for the absence of any qualifications for notice on 
account of general usefulness. 
ASPLENIUM HEMIONITIS, L. 
Our first species of Asplenium is one which stands out very distinctly from any other 
European member of the genus by reason of its simple entire fronds. At first sight, we should 
See Introduction, p. xxv. 
