THE LANCEOLATE SPLEENWORT 
1 adherent to the rhizome. achis flat in front, with a slight elevated margin, rounded behind, 
furnished sparingly with slender jointed hair-seales ; partial rachides, w and also furnished 
with similar hairs 
Vernation eiveinate 
Fronds from three or four inches to a foot, or occasionally eighteen inches in length, rigid, bright 
narrowing to a 
green, smooth except on rachides, lanceolate, bipinnate. Pinna broadest at the b 
point, usually horizontal, sometimes deflexed, scarcely more than half an inch in the smaller, two inches 
long in the larger fronds, all even the lowest scarcely stalked, sub-opposite or alternate; the lower 
more distant and somewhat shorter. Pinnales variable in form, obovate, obliquely-ovate, or dimidintely 
e at the base ; in the 
‚cd, always more or loss cum 
larger fronds they are pinnatifid below, with obovate sharply-toothed lobes, and coarsely toothed abov 
the teeth being mucronate ; in the smaller fronds the lobes are scarcely developed, the 
ır; sometimes the fronds are 
«у mueronately-toothed, Occasionally the lower pinnæ are lo 
narrow nd in other instances they aro membranaceous, 
ind only pinnate with lobed pinna 
оГ а fexuous midvein, alternately branched, the lowest anterior 
Venation of the pinnules consistin 
1 teeth, on 
vein directed to the principal lobe, and developing as many venules as there are margina 
the margin ; the other veins are forked or 
venule extending into each tooth, but not quite reaching 
simple, and correspond in number with the marginal teeth. 
Fruetification on the back of the frond and scattered over its whole surface. Sort indusiate, oblong, 
terior side of the venules, that is, above the fork of the veins, occupying rather the 
centro of the lobes than the centre of the pinnules, which gives a sub-marginal appearance to the 
fructiication ; at first distinct, but becoming confluent in irregular masses on the lobes, Occasion: 
the sori are set back to back on the venule ; and they are some 
confluent over nearly the whole frond, Zndusium а white, oblong, slightly 
wavy on the fre 
ır anterior margin. Spore-cases globose. Spores ovate, angular, roughish, 
Duration, The rhizome is perennial. ‘The fronds are persistent, and under shelter are produced at 
various times throughout the year, so that the plant is evergreen, 
The affinity of this plant is with Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, from which it may be known by 
its lanceolate, not deltoid, outline ; by the presence of hair-seales on its principal and partial rachides ; 
by the form of the sori, which is oblong, not linear, the sorus in A. Zanceolatum being nearly represented 
in appearance by the upper half of that of A. Adiantum-nigrum ; and further, by the position of the. 
sori, which is here produced above, and in A. Adiuntum-nigrum below the fork of the veins, consequently 
nearer the costa, so that in the latter the sofi aro central with respect to the pinnules, whilst in 
A. lance 
дабат they are submarginal. The texture is thinner, and the pinnules more equable in size. 
‘This is a very ornamental species, a 
d with us potted in well drained soil of peat, loam, and sand, 
ıd subjected tothe shelter of a shady frame or greenhouse, not kept excessively moist, it is one of 
the most manageable of the small 
evergreen species, always fresh and vigorous. 
ОГ variations, hardly varieties, Mr. Wo 
ton enumerates three :—"1. multifidum (W), а non- 
permanent form, in which the apex of the frond is occasionally bifid or multiid. 2. protiferum (W, 
an exceedingly scarce condition of the plant, having only been observed in two instances, namely, 
by Mr. Baxter, of Oxford, and the Rev. W. H. Hawker, in both eases on cultivated plants. 3, tact 
niatum (УУ), the peculiarity o 
which is, that the fronds are remarkably depaupera 
the leafy portion 
being in some cases entirely wanting j 
nd. the fructification, which is generally ve 
y copious, protrudes 
оп to the face of the frond, so that an inattentive ob: 
ver would not distinguish the front from the 
back, The pinnse and pinnules in this latter are frequently mere ribs or veins ; it is sub-permanent, 
id not uncommon in the Channel Isles” Mr. Jackson, of Gus 
sey, sends another from that island, 
in which the margins of the pinnules are so curled under, as to gi 
Ye unusual prominence to the 
thickened tooth ; it may be called (4) erispatun. 
