Fig. 1622. Kinds of Spleenwort (1-4)

The Description.

            1. Spleenwort being that kind of Fern called Asplenum or Ceterach, and the true Scolopendria, hath leaves a span long, jagged or cut upon both sides, even hard to the middle rib; every cut or incisure being as it were cut half round (whereby it is known from the rough Spleenwort) not one cut right against another, but one besides the other, set in several order, being slippery and green on the upper side, soft and downy underneath; which when they be withered are folded up together like a scroll, and hairy without, much like to the rough bear-worm wherewith men bait their hooks to catch fish: the root is small, black, and rough, much plaited or interlaced, having neither stalk, flower, nor seeds.

            2. Rough Spleenwort is partly like the other Ferns in show, and beareth neither stalk nor seed, having narrow leaves a foot long, and somewhat longer, slashed on the edges even to the middle rib, smooth on the upper side, and of a swart green colour; underneath rough, as is the leaves of Polypody: the root is black; and set with a number of slender strings.

            3. This greater Spleenwort hath leaves like Ceterach, of a span long, somewhat resembling those of Polypody, but that they are more divided, snipped about the edges, and sharp pointed: the root is fibrous and stringy. This grows on the rocks and mountainous places of Italy, and is the Lonchitis aspera maior of Matthiolus and others.

            4. This kind of Spleenwort is not only barren of stalks and seeds, but also of spots and marks wherewith the others are spotted: the leaves are few in number, growing pyramid or steeplewise, great and broad below, and sharper toward the top by degrees: the root is thick, black, and bushy, as it were a crow's nest.

The Place.

            Ceterach groweth upon old stone walls and rocks, in dark and shadowy places throughout the West part of England; especially upon the stone walls by Bristol, as you go to Saint Vincent's Rock, and likewise about Bath, Wells, and Salisbury, where I have seen great plenty thereof.

            The rough Spleenwort groweth upon barren heaths, dry sandy banks, and shadowy places in most parts of England, but especially on a heath by London called Hampstead Heath, where it groweth in great abundance.

The Names.

            Spleenwort or Miltwaste is called in Greek and Latin Asplenium, and also Scolopendria: of Gaza, Mula herba: in shops, Ceterach: in High Dutch, Steynfarn: in low Dutch, Steynvaren, and Miltcruyt: in English, Spleenwort, Miltwaste, Scalefern and Stonefern: it is called Asplenium, because it is special good against the infirmities of the spleen or milt, and Scolopendria of the likeness that it hath with the bear-worm, before remembered.

            Rough Miltwaste is called of divers of the later writers Asplenium sylvestre, or wild Spleenwort: of some, Asplenium magnum, or great Spleenwort: Valerius Cordus calleth it Strutiopteris: and Dioscorides, Lonchitis aspera, or Rough Spleenwort: in Latin according to the same author, Longina, and Calabrina: in English, Rough Spleenwort, or Miltwaste.

The Temperature.

            These plants are of thin parts, as Galen witnesseth, yet are they not hot, but in a mean.

The Virtues.

            A. Dioscorides teacheth, that the leaves boiled in wine and drunk by the space of forty days, do take way infirmities of the spleen; help the strangury, and yellow jaundice, cause the stone in the bladder to moulder and pass away, all which are performed by such things as be of thin and subtle parts: he addeth likewise that they slay the hicket, or yexing, and also hinder conception, either inwardly taken, or hanged about the party, and therefore, saith Pliny, Spleenwort is not to be given to women, because it bringeth barrenness.

            B. There be empirics or blind practitioners of this age, who teach, that with this herb not only the hardness and swelling of the spleen,but all infirmities of the liver also may be effectually, and in very short time removed, insomuch that the sodden liver of a beast is restored to his former constitution again, that is, made like unto a raw liver, if it be boiled again with this herb.

            C. But this is to be reckoned among the old wives' fables, and that also which Dioscorides telleth of, touching the gathering of Spleenwort in the night, and other most vain things, which are found here and there scattered in old books: from which most of the later writers do not abstain, who many times fill up their pages with lies and frivolous toys, and by so doing do not a little deceive young students.