IHB FEKN FAMILY. 479 



The most delicate and tender of the larger British ferns, the young fi-onds 

 being sometimes little more than a green film, yet lifting themselves into the air 

 streugthfnlly, and seldom broken by the wind or rain. The exquisitely fine ser- 

 ratures of the pinnules (Fig. E.) and the long and narrow sori, are at all times 

 enough to determine it. 



12. Common Spleen wort — {Asplmium Trichovianes.) 

 On rocks ; on old waUs, and other stonework ; and in the moats of 

 ancient manor-houses and castles, from which the water has been 

 drawn off, rather rare. Plentiful on the Wilmslow face of Barden 

 Bridge, the first that strides the Boilin above where that river is 

 crossed by the railway, about half a mile from Wilmslow Station. 

 Plentiful on a wall near Mr. Arkwright's mill, Marple Bridge. (Mr. 

 Sidebotham.) About Bramhall. (Mr. Karron.) Mobberley Mill. 

 (Mr. Holland.) Appleton, near Warrington. (Miss F. Brownell.) 

 Curtis, iv. 645 ; E. B. viii. 570. 



A very beautiful little evergreen fern, growing in dense tufts out of the crevices 

 of the rocks and stones among which it loves to insinuate its long black roots, 

 and conspicuous in the fine purplish-black and shining colour of its stalks, which 

 resemble those of the maiden-hair ferns, or Adiantuvis. The little oval pinnules 

 readily break off, especially after maturity, and leave long portions of the rachis 

 more or less naked. 



13. Wall-rue Fern — (^Asplenmm Ruta-miirdria.^ 

 On old walls, not uncommon. Alderley Churchyard wall. Wilms- 

 low. Abundant and very fine about Lyme Hall. Marple old Hall. 

 Strines. Dunham. Wall of Rhodes Farm, Outwoods. Mobberley 

 old Hall. Lymm Rectory wall. Washford Lane, near Warrington. 



(Mr. John Moss.) 



E. B. iii. 150. 



Distinguished immediately by its dense tufts of grayish or blueish-green fronds, 

 often not more than an inch in height, and rarely exceeding three inches, and 

 often with cobweds entangled among them. 



14. Hart's-tongue — {Scolopendrium vulgdre.') 

 Moist woods and doughs, especially where warm and kindly : also 

 on moist, shaded rocks, and in cave-like places, and the mouths of old 

 weUs ; sometimes on dry and exposed walls, but then with a starved 

 and stunted aspect. Very fine and abundant in Burley Hurst Wood, 

 Mobberley. Abundant at Baguley Mill, in the little ravine made by 

 the stream, and in the draw-wells thereabouts. (Common between 

 Baguley and Cotterill. Reddish. Lymm. Culcheth. Marple old 



