FERN TRIBE 131 
Snowdon. Some summers since, it grew in profusion on the high rocks at 
a short distance from Tunbridge Wells; but as that neighbourhood has, by 
its rare plants, attracted the attention of many botanists, and as fern-lovers 
are sometimes not so considerate for others as they should be, it became less 
abundant, and perhaps may be by this time altogether eradicated by the 
heedless waste with which it was gathered. It is a plant of but local 
occurrence, even on the sea-coast, growing only on the southern and western 
coasts of England and Wales, but it is plentiful in the Channel Islands. Its 
long black wiry roots penetrate far into the fissures of rocks. The young 
fronds appear in May, are matured by August, and remain green through 
the winter. The underground stem is brown, tufted, and densely clothed 
with a mass of bristle-like scales. Similar scales are scattered here and 
there on the stalk of the frond, which is of a glossy chestnut hue. In the 
most luxuriant specimens the frond attains the height of a foot and a half, 
but its average size is from six to eight inches. The outline is lanceolate ; 
the stalk about a third of its length. It is very similar to that of the 
species next to be described, the Black Spleenwort, but its outline differs in 
this respect. The form of the Black Spleenwort is always triangular and 
broadest at the base; but that of the Green Lanceolate species is truly 
lance-shaped, tapering from near the middle towards the base. The frond 
is twice-pinnate ; the pinne are generally, but not always, opposite, and 
egg-shaped and lanceolate in form. The pinnules are usually inversely egg- 
shaped, and have the margins serrated with deep teeth; the larger pinnules 
being cut into toothed lobes. 
The pinnules of this fern have a winding mid-vein, the lateral veins are 
branched, one of the smaller of these branched veins extending to each 
serrature of the margin, and the fructification being placed near the extremity, 
but not in a very regular manner. Lach cluster of capsules is at first long 
and narrow, and covered with a linear white indusium. This soon disappears, 
and the clusters crowd ultimately into roundish masses. 
2. Black Spleenwort (A. adidntum-nigrum).—Fronds triangular, twice 
or thrice pinnate ; pinnz and pinnules triangular, and sharply-toothed. This 
is a frequent and ornamental fern, gracing the time-stained walls of many an 
old church or ruin, or hanging down its graceful sprays over rocks, or on the 
hedge-bank of the dry but shady lane. It varies somewhat in form under 
different circumstances ; it has generally a very elongated triangular outline, 
the lowest pair of pinne being larger than the others. When growing in 
dry and open places, it is smaller and more blunt in all its parts than when 
among the bushes of the shadowed lane. It is among the latest of our 
ferns in unfolding its fronds, which are often not open till the middle of 
June. They are at first quite erect, forming little tufts, but they gradually 
lengthen and curve gracefully downwards, retaining their elegance of shape, 
and even their green hue and fructification, through the winter. The stalk 
is purple-brown and glossy, about half the length of the frond, and has upon 
it small bristle-like scales, which are also to be found on the rachis. This 
frond has its branches also of a triangular form, pinnate, and the pinne 
alternate, drawn out usually at the top intoa long point ; each pair gradually 
lessening from the base towards the top of the frond. The pinnules, too, 
17—2 
