36 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND FERNS. 



likely to attract the attention of any but the botanist. With its 

 rootstock hidden far in a crevice of the rock, or in a deep re- 

 cess of the " dry " stone wall, it throws out its fronds so that the 

 upper ends of them curve up against the stone above its cell, and 

 they look like the last efforts at foliage on the part of a starving 

 Buck's-horn Plantain (Plantago coronopus). (Plate 30.) 



The rootstock forms a thick tuft of the bases of former 

 fronds, from among which numerous new ones arise. Newman 

 speaks of a plant he found in Denbighshire with at least three 

 hundred fresh fronds upon it, and an equal number of old ones. 

 The frond is from four to six inches long, two-thirds of the 

 length being provided by the stipes. In outline it is very 

 narrowly lance-shaped, undivided except for two or three stout 

 teeth at its extremity, or with two or three long, slender, erect 

 pinnas, similarly toothed at the broader upper end. It is 

 leathery in texture, deep green in colour, and evergreen ; the 

 stipes black at the base (Plate 34). 



The sori are similar to those of the foregoing species, but 

 rather longer. There may be one, two, three, or four on a 

 single pinna, with clean-edged indusia. When fully developed 

 these sori run one into the other and cover the back of the 

 frond. The ripe spores may be found from June to October. 



The specific name is Latin for northern, and was bestowed to 

 indicate one of its characteristics as a British plant. " Forked 

 Spleenwort" is merely a book-name, no folk-name having been 

 recorded for it. 



This is a rare species and, like Asplenium germanicum, it 

 is confined to Great Britain, so far as its home distribution is 

 concerned. It has been found in Devonj Somerset, North 

 Wales, where it ascends to 3000 feet in the Snowdon district, 

 thence northward to Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. It has 

 not been recorded from either Ireland or the Channel Islands. 

 Outside our islands it is found over the greater part of Europe, 

 Asia (North and West), Himalaya, and North America. 



