300 
ASPLENIACEiE. 
Sowerby’s ‘ English Botany,’* and Gerardo’s Herbal. f Those 
in Bolton t and many other works would not be recognized. 
This fern is the Ceterach, Spleenwort or Miltwast of Gerarde,§ 
the Ceterach officinarum of Bauhin’s ‘Pinax,’|| and the Asple- 
nium sive Ceterach of RayH and others. Linneus made it an 
Asplenium,^* and subsequent authors have differed much as to 
its nomenclature. 
Its medicinal properties were formerly supposed of great va- 
lue, but like those of its congeners, they have greatly fallen into 
disrepute : it was once supposed very efficacious applied exter- 
nally to wounds and ulcers. It has, moreover, other vertues as 
they were called, in addition to its medicinal ones, some of these 
are enumerated by Gerarde, but they appear so very like vices, 
that I decline transferring them to these pages. Gerarde him- 
self, after dwelling on one of them with great apparent zest, 
adds, “ But this is to be reckoned among the old wives’ fables, 
and that also which Dioscorides tells of, touching the gathering 
of Spleenwort in the night, and other most vain things which 
are found here and there scattered in old books : from which 
most of the later writers do not abstaine who many times fill up 
their pages with lies and frivolous toyes, and by so doing do not 
a little deceive yong students.”tf Pleasant herbalist ! I fear 
I should neglect thy sage advice, could I but find a plea for in- 
troducing thy Bernacle goose-tree amongst the British Ferns. 
The roots of the Scaly Spleenwort are short, but possess a re- 
markable power of penetrating mortar, however hard it may be : 
they also find their way into rocks which appear to present the 
most compact surface : still from the luxuriance of some plants 
lately sent me by Mr. Thwaites, it would appear that this spe- 
cies thrives much more vigorously in the rich vegetable mould 
which has been accumulating during centuries in the deeper fis- 
sures : here the roots are longer, but still appear short as com- 
pared with those of Trichomanes and other rock-loving species. 
The rhizoma is tufted, brown and scaly. The young fronds 
* Eng. Bot. 1244. f Ger. Em. 1140. 
+ Bolt. Fil. tab. 7. § Ger. Em. 1141. \\C. B. Pinax, 354. 
^ Syii. 1 18. ** Sp. PI. 1537. ’ ff Ger. Em. 1141. 
