IRbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 3 January, 1901 No. 25 
A PLUMOSE VARIETY OF THE EBONY SPLEENWORT. 
GEORGE E. DAVENPORT. 
(Plate 22.) 
ASPLENIUM EBENEUM, Aiton, var. Hortonae, n. var. — Habit and 
rootstock as in the specific form. Fronds in two series as in normal 
forms; lower series smallest, rosette-like in arrangement, reclining 
in position, normally sterile, with closely set, more or less imbricated, 
alternate pinnae; larger series taller, erect, abnormally sterile, with 
more distinct, alternate, sessile, sub-sessile or short-stalked, obliquely 
incised or deeply pinnatifid obtuse pinnae, the oblique lobes cuneate 
and coarsely serrated, the basal lobes often distinct, the upper one ` 
the largest and somewhat auriculate; laminae 4 to 2 inches broad, 
pinnate nearly to the pinnatifid acute apex, lower portion abruptly 
diminished, the reduced pinnae lobed, or divided, and wholly differ- 
ent from the reduced simpler lobes of the normal forms. Stipe 
short, and, as well as the rhachis, vivid chestnut, or reddish brown, 
glossy, terete, or obscurely furrowed along the face in the living 
plant, shrivelling in drying and then appearing as if striated ; clothed 
at the base with a few delicate linear-acuminate, ciliated, transparent 
scales with a central framework of brown, and containing two small 
vascular bundles that shortly coalesce into one; veins flabellately 
forked in the basal lobes, the whole system forming what Luerssen 
terms * Nervatio Sphenopteridis" in which some of the pinnae 
resemble sections of Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum. 
This remarkable and most beautiful variety of the Ebony Spleen- 
wort was found growing on limestone cliffs in company with typical 
Asplenium ebeneum and A. Trichomanes by Mrs. Frances B. Horton, 
at Brattleboro, Vermont, in September, 1900. It presents an 
appearance so striking that at first I was inclined to regard it as a 
new species. 
