134 FILICES 
English names, White Maiden Hair, was probably given because of the 
light-coloured powder sometimes seen on its fronds. It was of old renown 
among the herbalists as a cure for coughs, and affords a slight degree of 
mucilage. 
5. Alternate-leaved Spleenwort (4. germdénicum).—Fronds simply 
and alternately pinnate; pinnules narrow, wedge-shaped. This is one of 
the rarest of British ferns, and is found on rocks in a few places in Scotland 
and the north of England and Wales. It was formerly considered but a 
variety of the Wall-rue, but its characteristics seem quite distinct and 
permanent ; and it is more probable that it may prove to be a hybrid 
between that species and the Forked Spleenwort. The frond, which is about 
three or four inches high, and of a bright green colour, is long and narrow, 
and pinnated with distinct, alternate, wedge-shaped pinne. The upper 
pinne are slightly lobed, becoming more lobed towards the base ; their upper 
ends are in every case toothed or notched. 
The fronds grow in tufts, are thick and tough in texture, and have no 
distinct mid-vein ; but a vein from the base of each pinna, or lobe, branches 
off two or three times as it reaches the broader parts, the veins forming a 
fan-like figure, being in the larger pinne seven or eight in number, and four 
in the smaller ones. Two or three lines of fructification are on each pinna, 
and are covered by an arched indusium, the margin free and slightly waved, 
but not torn; the clusters finally run into one thick mass. This plant is, 
by some writers, called Asplénium alternifélium. About sixteen natural 
varieties have been described. 
6. Forked Spleenwort (4. septentriondle). — Fronds 2 or 3-cleft ; 
segments linear ; margin sharply toothed. This is a rare fern in this country, 
though occurring in a few localities in abundance, as among the fissures of 
the rocks of Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh. It grows, too, on rocks and walls 
from Perth and Aberdeen southward as far as North Wales, and then occurs 
again in Devon and Somerset. Mr. Newman says, that he has seen it in 
greater luxuriance at Llanrwst, near the mouth of the Conway, than in any 
other place. This plant grows in tufts, and, notwithstanding the diminutive 
size of the individual fronds, occasionally thus forms large masses. Mr. 
Newman says, “ At Llanrwst, the tufts of this fern were very large ; one of 
them was so heavy, that after shaking out all the loose earth, I found it a 
very inconvenient load to carry, even the single mile which I had to convey 
it. This tuft, consisting, I suppose, but of one rhizoma, had upwards of 
three hundred perfectly vigorous fronds, besides at least an equal number 
of decaying ones, the relics of the previous year.” The fronds are usually 
two, three, or four inches in length, slender and forked, so as to resemble 
the horns of a stag; easily distinguished by their shape from any other 
fern, reminding one of the leaves of that common plant, the buck’s-horn 
plantain (Plantdgo corénopus). ‘The veins are few and little branched, one 
running into each lobe. The clusters of capsules lie in lines, in a very 
crowded manner, on each side of the vein. They are, at first, covered by a 
linear-shaped indusium, which bursts open as the capsules mature, and then 
gradually disappears. The whole under surface of the frond is finally covered 
with the brown mass of fructification. 
