J^EKXS. 



531 



The white hnear indusia and silvery hairs are the distinguishing 

 features of this species. It appears to love marshy soil, or rich, damp 

 woods where, among shrubs and coarse herbage, it grows to about two 

 feet in height. The colour is deep green, leaflets blunt, fruit dots, of 

 silvery-white lines, long and narrow, giving a striking effect to the under 

 surface of the frond. The fertile fronds are taller than the barren. 



Ebony Spleen-wort. — Aspleuimii ehciieum, (Ait.) 



The Ebony Spleen-wort is found on the Laurentian rocks, near 

 Shannonville station, where it was found by that diligent botanist Prof. 

 J. Macoun. It is a rare fern, and one of great beauty ; well suited to 

 green-house culture. The root-stock is black, fibrous and matted ; the 

 tufted stipes short, and, with the rachis, blackish, shining and pliant ; 

 the frond tapering in outline both below and at the apex ; the pinnae 

 being much larger towards the centre of the frond \ pinnte 20 to 40, 

 blunt, slightly auricled, toothed, or minutely serrated at the margins, 

 lower pairs very short but increasing upwards. Sori placed slantingly 

 nearer to the mid-vein than the margin, on the straight, simply-forked 

 veinlets. Indusia at first white, but when ripe of a light brown, linear 

 in shape : colour of the frond, of rather a darkish green ; varying in 

 height from four to ten inches ; simply pinnate ; habitat chinks and 

 clefts of Laurentian rocks ; never occurring, that I am aware of, in woods 

 and forests, but probably will be found among the rocky districts 

 northward of Belleville and the rocky ridges in Madoc, Marmora and 

 the more north-easterly parts of Canada, at present a tract of country 

 not much explored by the Pteridologist. 



Black Spleen-wort. — Asplejiimii Trichoviancs, (L.) 



This rare little Rock-fern also belongs to the Laurentian formation. 

 The specimen now before me was found in rocks near Shannonville ; 

 this place appears to be rich in the rarer species of Aspleniete. 



In habit and general appearance Asplenium Trichomaiies resembles 

 the British fern of the same name, and is considered to be the same 

 species. In height it varies from three to nine inches ; possibly fine 

 luxuriant plants may exceed this standard. It is narrow in outline, 

 upright or slightly curving, simply pinnate, pinnK roundish or irregular, 

 oval, slightly crenate, some of the lower pairs unequal, but hardly so 

 much so as to be lobed, attached to the rachis by a very slight petiole 

 or hair-like foot-stalk, m some cases hardly perceptible. Rachis, purplish- 

 brown or black ; stipes, below the leafage, short ; pinnae extending almost 

 to the root-stock, which is matted, black, and fibrous, as in A. ebeneuin ; 

 sori few; indusia flattisli, pale brown, ripening late in July or early in 

 August. 



