COMMON SCALE FERN 
135 
effectually and in a very short time removed. 
But this is to be reckoned amongst the old wives’ 
fables, and that also which Dioscorides telleth of, 
touching the gathering of spleenwort, in the night, 
and other most vaine things which are found here and 
there scattered in old books.” There may be yet 
some grain of truth in even old wives’ fables; and 
Ceterach, though its Arabic name be lost, is still 
retained in Italy in the list of medicinal plants. On the 
Welsh coast they use it as a bait in fishing for rock- 
cod. It does not apparently extend further north 
than Scotland, but is spread over the centre and south 
of Europe, North and South Africa, through Central 
Asia, and, it is said, in Brazil. It grows freely in 
the garden — in lime-rubbish, requiring to be kept 
rather dry. 
HABITATS. 
Arnside Knott (JVtiss Beever) ; Milnthorpe, Scout 
Scar, Ambleside (Miss S. Beever ) ; Gosforth, (Bod- 
son) ; Keswick, Sand with, St. Bees, Yew Crags, 
Aira Beck, Whitbarrow, &c. 
VARIETIES. 
ramosum , — Arnside, J. Crossfield. 
crenatum, — In several places. 
