m 
CETERACH OEEICINARUM. 
[ Ceterach of-the-shops. There is no English trans- 
lated name for this fern, and it is not known with 
certainty from what country the name Ceterach origin- 
ally came, nor the language from which it is derived. 
Some give it an Arabic derivation, and refer it to 
Chetherack, or to the words shetr or chetr, to cut, and 
warak, a leaf. Others give it a Keltic or Ancient 
British parentage, and quote the words Cedor y wrack, 
being the name of a plant spoken of by writers in the 
time of Charles I., meaning the Jointed or Double 
Rake, as if the leaf resembled two rakes placed back 
to back. Some suspect, however, that this name 
rather belonged to the Equisetum jluviatile, which 
others deny. Doctors disagree. Cedor y wrack, Cedor 
wrack, Ceterach, is a gradation of easy sequence, 
say the advocates for the ancient British derivation. 
We commonly call it the Scaly Spleenwort, or Scale 
Fern.] 
Syn . — Asplenium Ceterach, Grammitis C., Gymno- 
gramma C., Notolepeum C., Scolopendrimn C. 
Root tufted, fibrous. The fronds vary in length 
from three to six inches. The specimen from which 
I printed or impressed the example in the plate was 
the best I could procure at the time, though I was 
much dissatisfied with its small and stunted propor- 
tions. I could have procured a finer plant from a 
distance ; but in this book I admit nothing but what 
has been found near Sidmouth. The upper surface 
of the frond is of a deep green: the reverse is 
covered with brown chaffy scales, amongst which 
lie the sori. It is pinnatifid : — you know what that 
is, I suppose. I have explained once or twice, and 
you must assist me by remembering. The veins 
ramify from the base to the margin, where they 
cross each other. The sori lie on their anterior sides. 
Uses. — Lamarck says it is operative and astringent, 
and has been used in spleen disease, as, indeed, all 
the Asplenons and their congeners have. Gerarde, 
the old writer on herbs in the time of Queen Eliza- 
beth, observes, that any hardness or swelling of 
