"Applied also to the nose it cureth the disease called polypus, which by time and sufferance stoppeth the nostrils." The leaves of the Polypody when burnt furnish a large proportion of carbonate of Potash. The Spleenwort (_Asplenium ceterach_--an Arabian term), or Scaly Fern, or Finger Fern, grows on old walls, and in the clefts of moist rocks. It is also called "Miltwaste," because supposed to cure disorders of the milt, or spleen:-- "The Finger Fern, which being given to swine, It makes their milt to melt away in fine." [191] Very probably this reputed virtue has mainly become attributed to the plant, because the lobular milt-like shape of its leaf resembles the form of the spleen. "No herbe maie be compared therewith," says one of the oldest Herbals, "for his singular virtue to help the sicknesse or grief of the splene." Pliny ordered: "It should not be given to women, because it bringeth barrenness." Vitruvius alleged that in Crete the flocks and herds were found to be without spleens, because they browsed on this fern. The plant was supposed when given medicinally to diminish the size of the enlarged spleen or "ague-cake." The Wall Rue (_Ruta muraria_) is a white Maidenhair Fern, and is named by some _Salvia vitoe_. It is a small herb, somewhat nearly of the colour of Garden Rue, and is likewise good for them that have a cough, or are shortwinded, or be troubled with stitches in the sides. It stayeth the falling or shedding of the hair, and causeth them to grow thick, fair, and well coloured. This plant is held by those of judgment and experience, to be as effectual a capillary herb as any whatever. Also, it helpeth ruptures in children. Matthiolus "hath known of divers holpen therein by taking the powder of the herb in drink for forty days together." Its leaves are like those of Rue, and the Fern has been called Tentwort from its use as a specific or sovereign remedy for the cure of rickets, a disease once known as "the taint." The generic appellations of the several species of Ferns are derived thus: _Aspidium_, from _aspis_, a shield, because the spores are enclosed in bosses; _Pteris_, from _pteerux_, a wing, having doubly pinnate fronds; or from _pteron_, a feather, having feathery fronds; _Scolopendrium_, because the fructification is supposed to resemble the feet of _Scoltpendra_, a genus of mydrapods; and _Polypody_, many footed, by reason of the pectinate fronds. [192] There grows in Tartary a singular polypody Fern, of which the hairy foot is easily made to simulate in form a small sheep. It rises above the ground with excrescences resembling a head and tail, whilst having four leg-like fronds. Fabulous stories are told about this remarkable Fern root; and in China its hairy down is so highly valued as a styptic for fresh bleeding cuts and wounds, that few families will be without it. Dr. Darwin, in his _Loves of the Plants_, says about this curious natural production, the _Polypodium Barometz_:--