40 
ASPLENIUII LANCEOEATUM. 
nigrum, so much so, that Mr. Bolton thought it only a 
variety, hut from this species it is always to be distin¬ 
guished by the form and position of the fructification. 
The first author we find mentioning the Asplcnium 
lanceolatum, is Lyte, in his translation of Dodoen’s 
Herbal, published in 1378, if it is what he there calls 
Dryopteris Candida, or White Oak Fern; and if so, 
Lyte adds—“Mathiolus and Ruellius, both men of 
great knowledge, do call it in Latin, Osmunda. Where¬ 
fore we, considering the property of this herb in tak¬ 
ing away hair, do think good to name this herb in our 
language, Osmund Baldpate, or Pilled Osmund"—to 
pill being an old word for to rob. We are not certain 
that either Lyte, or Johnson (the editor of Gerardo), or 
Parkinson, really alluded to this species of Asplcnium 
under the title of Dryoptcris Candida, but we bow to 
the judgment of the lato Sir J. E. Smith, who so states 
in his “ English Flora," iv. 298. 
It was not until the second edition of Ray’s “ Synopsis 
Stirpium Britannicarum ” appeared, in 1090, that this 
Fern was announced as a native of the British do¬ 
minions, for it is there stated that Dr. Sherard had 
found it “ on the rocks on the north side of the Isle of 
Jersey.” In 1724, in the third edition of the same 
work, its discovery in England was first noticed. “ Mr. 
Bobart having found it in the north porch of the 
church at Adderbury, in Oxfordshire. Dr. Woodward 
found it also in England." 
Although an English Fern, it is of a delicate habit, 
and only grows wild in peculiarly-sheltered, well-drained, 
