Cetf.rach . 
127 
short time removed, insomuch that the sodden liver of a beast is restored to his constitu- 
tion againe, that is, made like to a rawe liver, if it be boiled againe with this herbe. 
But this is to be reckoned among the old wives fables, and that also which Dioscorides 
telleth of, touching the gathering of Spleenwoort in the night, and other most vaine things, 
which are founde heere and there scattered in the old writers’ books, from which most of the 
later writers do not abstaine, who many times fill up their pages with lies and frivolous stories, 
and by so doing do not a little deceive yoong students.” It is impossible to read these severe 
animadversions without being reminded of a certain 
proverb referring to the unsuitability of stone-throw- 
ing as an occupation for individuals whose abode is 
mainly composed of a certain transparent and brittle 
material ; and it would be interesting to know, with 
regard to the Barnacle Goose, whether any explana- 
tion is forthcoming of the circumstances which induced 
Gerard to place on record his belief on ocular demon- 
stration of so startling a phenomenon. 
There is a figure (which we here reproduce) and 
description of the Ceterach in William Turner’s 
“Herbal” (1568); the latter is a good specimen of 
the quaint style of this old author, who has been 
called “ the father of English botany,” and we there- 
fore extract it in full : “ Asplenmrt, as Dioscorides 
writeth, is called also Asplenium , Splenum, and 
Hemionium; and though Hcmionites be a farr other 
herb in Dioscorides than Asplenum is, and it is called 
of Asclepiades, in the nynth booke of Galenes worke 
of the composition of medecines after y e places, 
Hemionites. Andromachus in the same boke gyveth 
the same names unto Asplenum. But Galene in y e 
first boke of Simples, and the xii. chapter, semeth 
contrarye unto all these foure autentike autours, to 
make two diverse herbes of Asplenum and Scolopen- 
drium , whilse he rehearseth these words : ‘ The greater diseases of the milte and liver require 
stronger herbes, that is to wit, the barkes of Capers, the rootes of Tamarisk, Scolopendrion, and 
Scilla, called Sea Onyon, and the herbe whiche represented! the same thing by his name, 
called Asplenos.’ What a man should saye in this matter it is not very ready at hand 
unto al men, nether had it been redy unto me, if that I had not sene two kindes of 
Asplenum. Whilse I went by the Ryne [Rhine] syde, foure myles beneth Binge [Bingen], I 
chaunsed upon great plenty of Asplenon, and there dyd I se a herbe which had whyter 
leaves, deper indented, and sharper leaves than the other had : in so muche (as I remembre) 
it drew very nere unto the lykenes of a certayne kinde of a litle thistel, whiche is indented 
lyke Asplenum. This (as I suppose) was the herbe whiche Galene dyd separe [separate] 
from Scolopendrion. And yet is not Scolopcndrion Hartes tonge, whiche agreeth nothinge 
nether in likenes nether in description with Scolopendrion. Asplenos groweth muche in Germanye 
in olde moiste walles and in rockes, it groweth also in England about Bristowe : it is named 
in Duche Steinfarn, in Frenche Ceterache, as the Potecarye call it. I have harde [heard] no 
