27 6 A S P 
duties of this office he difcharged for twenty years, and 
then refigned it to retire into his own country. Having 
made a journey to Rome, to plead the caufe of Bartholo- 
mco de Caranza, archbifhop of Toledo, who had been ae¬ 
rated of herefy before the tribunal of the inquifitiou in 
Spain, and whofe caufe was, by the pope’s order, to be 
tried in that city, Afpicueta’s writings, which were well 
known, procured him a molt honourable reception. Pope 
Pius V. made him affidant to cardinal Francis Aciat, his 
vice-penitentiary; and Gregory XIII. never palled by his 
floor without calling. His name became lb famous, that 
even in his life-time the higheft encomium on a learned 
man was to call him a Navarrus. He was confultcd as an 
oracle. By temperance he prolonged his life to a great 
length. His economy enabled him to give fubftantial 
proofs of his charity. Being very old, he ufed to ride on 
a mule through the city, and relieved all the poor he met; 
to whieh his mule was fo accudomed, that it hopped of 
its own accord at the light of every poor man till its maf- 
ter had relieved him. He refufed feveral honourable polls 
in church and hate, that he might have leifure to correCt 
and improve the works he had already written, and com¬ 
pote others. He died at the age of ninety-four, on the 
2 ilt of June, 1586. He wrote a valt number of treatifes 
on morality and the canon law. 
ASPIRAN', a town of France, in the department of 
Heraldt, and chief place of a canton, in the didriCt of 
fiLodeve, two leagues north of Pezenas. 
To AS'PIRATE, v. a. [ afpiro , Lat.] To pronounce 
with afpiration, or full breath ; as we alpirate horfe, koufe, 
and hog. 
To Aspirate, v.n. [afpiro, Lat.] To be pronounced 
with full breath.—Where a vowel ends a word, the next 
begins either with a confonant, or what is its equivalent; 
for out’ w and h afpirate. Dryden. 
Aspirate, afj. [ afpiratus , Lat.] Pronounced with full 
breath.—For their being pervious, you may call them, if 
you pleafe, perfpirate; but yet they are not afpiratc, i. e, 
With fuch an.afpiration as h. Holder. 
Aspirate, in grammar, denotes words marked with 
the fpiritus afper. See Asper. 
ASPIRA'TION, f. [ajpiratio, Lat.] A breathing af¬ 
ter ; an ardent wiih; ufed generally of a wifli for fpiritual 
bleffings.—A foul infpired with the warmed afpirations af¬ 
ter celedial beatitude, keeps its powers attentive. Watts. — 
The aCi; of afpiring, or defiring fomething high and great: 
s Tis he ; I ken the manner of his gait; 
He rifes on his toe ; that fpii it of his 
In afpiration lifts him from the earth. Shakefpeare. 
The pronunciation of a vowel with full breath.— H is only 
a guttural afpiration, i. e. a more forcible inipulle of the 
breath from the lungs. Holder. 
To ASPI'RE, v. n. [ afpiro, Lat.] To defire with eager- 
nels ; to pant after fomething higher : fometimes with the 
particle to. —Molt excellent lady, no expectation in others, 
nor hope in himfelf, could afpire to a higher mark, than to 
be thought worthy to be prailed by you. Sidney. 
Afpiring to be gods, if angels fell, 
Afpiring to be angels, men rebel. Pope. 
Sometimes with after. —Thofe are raifed above fenfe, and 
afpire after immortality, who believe the perpetual dura¬ 
tion of their fouls. Tillotfon. —To rife ; to tower : 
There is betwixt that fmile we would afpire to. 
That fweet afpeCt of princes and our ruin, 
More pangs and fears than war or women have. Shakefpeare. 
ASPI'RER,/! One that ambitioufly drives to be greater 
than he is: They ween’d 
To win the mount of God ; and on his throne 
To fet the envier of his date, the proud 
AJpirer; but their thoughts prov’d fond and vain. Milton. 
j\SPLE'NIUM, f [from «, and <77 t\y,v, becaufe it was 
fuppofed to dry up the fpleen.] In botany, a genus ef 
ASP 
the eryptogamia filices, or clafs of ferns. The generic 
characters are—Fructifications difpofed in right lines along 
the under dilk of the frond. 
Species. I. Frond fimple. r. Afplenium rhizophyllum^ 
or root-leaved fpleenwort: fronds cordate-enfiform undi¬ 
vided, top filiform rooting. Root fibrofe. Fronds trian¬ 
gular, acuminate, point long, linear. Fructifications -ir¬ 
regularly difperfed over the whole dilk of the leaf in ob¬ 
long fpots. The ends of the fronds bend down to the 
ground, and there throw out roots, by which means this, 
fpecies of fern propagates itfelf. It was fent to Morifon 
from Virginia, by Banider, in 1680, and is found in other 
parts of North America. According to the catalogue of 
the royal botanic garden at Kew, it was introduced about 
1764, by Mi*. John Bartram. Probably Morifon had only 
dry fpecimens, and not the living plant. 
2. Afplenium hemionitis, or mule’s tongue, mule’s fern, 
or fpleenwort: fronds fimple cordate-hadate five-lobed. 
quite entire, dipes fmooth and even. Mule’s fern is very 
nearly allied to hart’s tongue, No. 3 ; but the longitudinal 
diameter of the frond fcarcely- exceeds the tranfvcrfe one. 
It is a low fern, not above fix inches in height, with a 
•fibrous.root. Native of the fouth of Europe, and Madeira. 
Introduced in 1779, by Mr. Francis Maffon. 
3. Afplenium fcolopendrium, or hart’s tongue fpleen¬ 
wort: fronds fimple cordate-lingulate quite entire, dipes 
hirfute. Root black, hard, covered with feales, and emit¬ 
ting numerous drong black fibres. Fronds from five inches 
to a foot in length, and from an inch to an inch and half 
in breadth, lanceolate, rounded and hollowed at the bafe, 
.of a tough and firm texture, of a dark fhining green above, 
paler underneath, having numerous parallel veins running 
obliquely from the midrib to the margin ; which is ufu- 
ally more or lefs waved: but the fronds are much fub- 
ject to vary; and hence feveral varieties have been men¬ 
tioned by authors, as the curled, waved, cindered, and 
branching, hart’s tongue. Fructifications in parallel lines, 
oblique to the midrib, commonly in one row’ on each fide 
of it, but fometimes there is a double row, thofe of the 
inner row much larger than the outer ; the lower part of 
the frond is often barren: the lines are narrow at firft, 
and covered with a pale membranaceous pellucid involu¬ 
cre, which burds when the capfules fwell, and then they 
are much wider, and the capfules are globular and brown, 
each fur rounded with a jointed eladic ring; when the feeds 
are ripe, the capfule is forced open by this, and they are 
difperfed ta a confiderable didance. The feeds are very 
numerous, and fcarcely vifible to the naked eye; when 
magnified, they appear roundifh, and full of little project¬ 
ing points. Native of mod parts of Europe, in fhady 
lanes, on walls and rocks, in wells and damp caverns. 
Common in many parts of England, efpecially in the 
north. It is in full feed from September to November. 
The officinal names are lingua cervina, phyllitis, and fcclo- 
pendrium. It is called hart’s tongue , from the form of the 
leaf, in all the northern languages, with very little varia¬ 
tion. The leaves were recommended as aperients and cor¬ 
roborants, in obdruCtions of the vifeera, &c. They hav® 
been chiefly ufed in apozems and infufions. Ray Recom¬ 
mends the plant, from his own experience, as a good me¬ 
dicine againd convuldve diforders ; but it is difearded 
from the. prefent practice. The common people indeed 
dill ufe an ointment made with the leaves of this, as aids 
of ophiogloffum, or adder’s tongue, in burns and fealds. 
4. Afplenium nidus, or bird’s-ned Ipleenwort: fronds 
fimple lanceolate quite entire fmooth. The leaves of this 
are two feet long, and fix or feven inches wide, firm and 
thick, fmooth, and dreaked at an acute angle. The lines 
of fructification between the nerves or parallel dreaks are 
ihort, fcarcely extending one-third of the breadth of the 
leaf. It roots into the tops of trees. The leaves come out 
in a circle, are erect, and form a kind of umbel, in the 
middle of which birds make their neds. Native of Java, 
and the Society ides. 
5. Afplenium ferratum, or ferrate-leaved fpleenwort: 
fronds 
