164 : BRITISH FERNS. 
The Scaly Spleenwort is found in all the middle 
and southern countries of Europe, but I believe it has 
not yet been discovered in Lapland, Norway, Sweden, 
or the North of Russia; it occurs in the South of 
Russia, both European and Asiatic: it is common in 
the North of Africa and in the Canary and Cape de 
Verde Islands. In Madeira and Teneriffe it also 
occurs, as well as a plant of much larger size than 
ours, and of more beautiful appearance, a plant which 
some botanists call Notolepeum aureum, while others 
believe it a variety of Ceterach; I cannot take upon 
myself to say whether the two forms are identical as 
species. It is very generally scattered over the 
“northern, western and southern counties of England 
and Wales: in the midland counties it is of rare 
occurrence, and in the eastern scarcely known. In 
a few instances, more particularly in limestone dis- 
tricts, it is found growing freely on rocks, and in what 
may be considered truly natural situations; but its 
usual locality is the mortar of ruins, churches and 
walls, erected by man, and therefore not strictly 
natural; for when we provide a proper dwelling-place 
for plants or animals, whether intentionally or un- 
intentionally, it always partakes more or less of an 
_ artificial character. A singular and quite abnormal 
dwelling-place for this fern'is recorded by Mr. W. R. 
Smith: this gentleman found it growing with other 
ferns on an old tree overhanging a d . 
halk lane at 
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