256 
ASPLENIACE.E. 
to which I allude is described by Beck under the name of As- 
plenium montanum^ and by Michaux under that of Asplenium 
Adiantum-nigrwm.\ 
There are good figures of this fern in Sowerby’s ^ English 
Botany,’ X Bolton’s ‘ Filices,’ § and in many of the continental 
works. 
Concerning the nomenclature of this fern there appears no 
difference of opinion, the name of Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum 
being assigned to it by general consent. 
Its medicinal properties have been celebrated by several of 
the older writers, but little credence appears to have been given 
to them by modern practitioners : the catalogue of diseases in 
w^hich it was prescribed is summed up by Ray in the passage 
cited below. II 
The root is very black and wiry ; the rhizoma tufted, black, 
and covered with bristly scales : the stem is extremely smooth, 
shining, and generally of a black or dark purple colour ; at its 
base are a few scattered scales. 
The fronds seldom appear before the end of May or begin- 
ning of June : at first their position is nearly erect, but they soon 
begin to droop, and finally become quite pendulous : they arrive 
at maturity in September, and continue perfectly green and vi- 
gorous throughout the winter, and until the ensuing May, or 
even June ; they are always fertile. The form of the frond is 
triangular, its apex being acute and attenuated ; it is pinnate ; 
the pinnae are triangular, acutely pointed, pinnate and alternate ; 
the pinnules again are alternate and triangular, and the lower 
ones often pinnate or pinnatifid, with the lobes notched. 
The lateral veins in the pinnules or lobes, as the case may be, 
are irregularly alternate, and are generally forked after leaving 
the midvein ; and one or both branches of this divided vein 
bears on its side a line of capsules : these are at first covered by 
* Beck, 453. f Michaux, ii. 265. + Eng. Bot. 1950. 
§ Bolt. Fil. tab. 17. 
H In tussi, asthraate, pleuritide, ictero, obstructionibus lienis prodesse cre- 
ditur : quin et ad renum et vesicse dolores valere, * * * calculos et 
arenulas expellendo : Matthiolus ad puerorum enteroscelas pulverisatum pro- 
pinat : Hoffmannus in scorbuticis affectibus conimendat. — Syn. 127. 
