132 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



On rocks and walls rather frequent. Generally distributed, ex- 

 tending to Orkney. Frequent but rather local in Ireland. Var. /?. 

 Hedge-bank near Bowler Green, south-west Surrey, H. C. Watson ; 

 " Killarney," Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. vii. p. 452. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Plant growing in dense tufts. Fronds including the very short 

 stipes, 1| to 1 foot long, by i to f inch broad. After the fall of the 

 pinnae, the stipes and bare rachis remain and in old plants each of 

 the approximate crowns is surrounded by a guard of these leafless 

 purplish-brown ra chides. 



Yar. fi. seems to pass insensibly into the ordinary form. Mr. T. 

 Moore says of A. anceps that it has not, he believes, been found in 

 Britain, but specimens from Mr. H. C. Watson, collected in Surrey, 

 appear inseparable from the plant of the Atlantic islands ; some of 

 these specimens have fronds 10 inches long by 1 J inch broad. 



There are some very beautiful monstrosities of A. Adiantum-nigrum, 

 of which the form called incisum by Moore is the most striking ; in 

 this the leaves are irregularly deeply pinnatifid, with the segments 

 incised. It is, as Mr. Moore says, exactly analogous to the form 

 Cambricum of Polypodium vulgare, and the fronds are said to be 

 uniformly barren. 



Crested forms in which the apex of the frond is spread out into a 

 tassel are more common, and are said to be invariably produced from 

 spores. 



Asplenium Trichomanes is liable to be confounded with A. viride ; 

 but in that species the stipes is green at the apex, and the rachis 

 wholly green and destitute of the raised brown wing down each 

 side, the pinnae are persistent and more evidently stalked, much 

 thinner in texture and more translucent, so that the veins are readily 

 seen when the plant is held up to the light, paler green, and usually 

 more crenate, with the sori shorter and nearer the midrib. 

 When A. Trichomanes becomes luxuriant the pinnae are longer and 

 narrower in proportion than in the smaller forms ; while in A. viride 

 they become broader and more rhombic or deltoid-rhombic. 



Maidenhair Spleenwovt. 



SPECIES VII.— ASPLENIUM CLERMONT^. 



Plate 1879. 



A. Petrarc[h]fe, Newm. Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. v. p. 14.6 ; non DC. 



" Caudex small, tufted ; the crown covered with dark-coloured, 

 linear, sharp-pointed scales," Newman. Stipes slender, wiry, shorter 

 than the frond, chestnut-brown below, green in the upper part, with 



