CllYPTOGAMIA—FILICES. Asplenium. 299 



Hoot tufted, black, scaly. Fromh usually about half the size of 

 the last, with shorter sia/A-,s, smooth, of a fine grass green, which 

 often remains uninjured in the dried s])ccimens ; their outline 

 lanceolate, not deltoid, the lowermost wings being shorter than 

 those about the middle of the frond, and rather more distant, 

 as well as more disposed to be opposite ; all of them are pin- 

 nate, or partly pinnatifid j the leajlets, or their segments, ob- 

 ovate, obtuse, tapering at the base, deeply and acutely serrated 

 at the extremity, with pointed or bristly teeth, and branching 

 veins. Musses several, short, elliptic-oblong, crowded about 

 the middle of each leaflet or lobe, and after a while confluent, 

 spreading nearly over the whole. Cover oblong, whitish, with 

 a jagged margin, always separating at the side towards the 

 midrib. Capsules prominent, of a rusty brown. 



A very distinct and handsome species, little known except in some 

 parts of England and France. In an advanced state the aggre- 

 gate masses of capsules become roundish, so that, without an 

 examination of the covers, the plant might be taken for a Poly' 

 podium or Aspidium. 



9. K.fontanum. Smooth Rock Spleenvvort. 



Frond linear-lanceolate, doubly pinnate; leaflets and seg- 

 ments wedge-shaped, deeply and sharply toothed. Ge- 

 neral and partial midribs bordered throughout. 



Aspidium fontanum. Sw. Sijn. Fit. 57. ff'illd. Sp. PL v.5.27'2. 



Engl. Bot.v. 29.1.2024. 

 A. Halleri. IVilld.v.o. 274. 

 Polypodium fontanum. Linn. Sp. PI. ed. 1 . 1089. ed. 2. IjoOj with 



the descriptions and sijnonijms. Herb. Linn. Fl. Br. 1114. Hiids. 



456. Bolt.Fil.38.t.2\. Leers 225. nilurs Dauph. v. 3. 849. 



Gouan. Illuslr. 80. 

 P. n. 1706. Hall. Hist. V. 3. 15. 

 Filicula saxatilis, omnium minima, clegantissima. Tourn. Inst. 



542; according to his herbarium. Pluk. Almag.\5Q. Phjt. t. 89. 



/.3. 

 F. fontana. Tahern. Krenterb. \\8\,f. 



Adiantum filicinum duriuscrispum minimum. Barrel. Ic. t.432.f.\ . 

 A. album. Lob. Ic.8\0.f. 1.? 

 Dryopteris. Dalech. Hist. 1228./.? 

 On shady old walls, or rocks, very rare. 

 On Amersham, or Agmondesham, church, Bucks, found by a Mr. 



Bradney, according to Hudson, and from whence it was brought 



alive to Kew garden, by the late Mr. Alton, from whom I have 



a specimen ; but the church has been wliitewashed, and the 

 ' plant destroyed. Mr. Hudson gathered the same in a stony 



situation near Wybourn, in Westmoreland j or rather perhaps 



W'iburu ill Cumberland. 



