SCALY SPLEENIVORT. 
OS 
the discovery that all these supposed peculiarities, 
existing in various herbs and plants, depend on some 
astringent or other principle which is better supplied 
to the system in a more concentrated form from some 
other source. 
The common name Spleenwort takes its origin in 
a curious story,—that in Cerito there is a river which 
divides two portions of land, the Ceterach growing 
abundantly on one side of the stream and not on the 
other. On the side where this fern grows, the pigs 
are said to have no spleen, but on the other side no 
such deficiency is recorded. Hence the name Spleen- 
wort, or Asplenon . To this day, Arabian and other 
eastern writers believe in the virtues of this fern in 
diseases of the spleen and liver. 
To cultivate this fern with any success, its natural 
habit must be attended to as much as possible. It 
does best in the interstices of a wall, where the mortar 
has begun to crumble. In pot culture the soil should 
be prepared with great care ; old crumbled mortar, 
peat earth, and limestone or oolite, should be well 
mixed together, and placed in shade. It is generally 
supposed that it is impossible to grow this fern in 
the atmosphere of London ; yet Mr. Sowerby tells 
us that the best specimen he ever had flourished in 
the old wet mortar of a wall in Hatton Garden, where 
not a ray of sunlight ever reached it, and where the 
atmosphere was as full of London smoke as it is 
anywhere. 
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