CHAPTER VIII 
MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT 
Asplenium trichomanes. 
Rootstock caudiciform, slender, branching, chaffy: scales 
small, lance-linear, acuminate, entire or slightly ciliate, with 
subopaque, madeira-red or topaz-colored centres, otherwise hya- 
line or reticulate in similar color: leaves fascicled at rootstock’s 
apex: roots springing singly from junctures of petioles and 
rootstock. 
Leaves ascending or reclined, often in flattened tufts, two and 
four-fifths to eight inches long, two-fifths to four-fifths of an inch 
broad, imperfectly evergreen, the petioles and rachises more or less 
persistent, the pinne beginning to drop off in autumn. 
Petioles four-fifths of an inch to four and one-third inches long, 
purplish or chestnut-brown, glossy, below terete or subterete; above 
flattened or slightly furrowed on face, narrowly winged on sides, 
wings light brown; bearing a few scales at base and sometimes 
above; scales lanceolate or linear, otherwise similar to scales of 
rootstock or subopaque centres reduced or lacking: fibrovas- 
cular bundle solitary, roundish or on face flattish. 
Blades linear, obtuse or short-acuminate, pinnate: apex 
crenate, often lobed or pinnatifid at base: pinne alternate or 
opposite, approximate or the lower more distant, subsessile or 
