40 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND FERNS. 



have called It Green Spleenwort, but as the Maidenhair 

 Spleenwort is green all but its rachis, Withering's name seems 

 preferable as affording a clue to the chief difference between 

 the two plants. 



Sea Spleenwort (Asfknium marinum). 



In striking contrast with the slender fronds and small pinnae 

 of the foregoing Spleenworts, we have the thick and substantial- 

 fronded Sea Fern, with its unbranched rachis and its double 

 series of egg-shaped pinnae. The frond pattern follows much 

 upon the lines of the Maidenhair Spleenwort, but here it is much 

 larger and the texture firm and leathery. Luxuriant specimens 

 have fronds little less than a foot and a half in length, of which 

 about one-third belongs to the stipes ; more frequently the 

 complete frond measures about six or eight inches. The root- 

 stock is woody, clothed with loose purplish scales, and wedged 

 in a crevice of the rocks, into which its wiry roots penetrate far. 

 Often this will be in the roof of a sea cave from which the 

 fronds grow with downward curves ; or, if growing about the 

 mouth of the cave, the fronds will dispose themselves partly in 

 an erect, partly in a drooping or spreading manner. This is 

 a tantalizing plant to the fern-collector, for so often it grows 

 where it may be seen well, but where it is difficult of attainment 

 even by a good rock climber. This is just as well, for the 

 roots are mostly left in the crevice when the rootstock has been 

 secured, so that collected specimens are commonly doomed on 

 this account ; but, in addition, the species does not grow well 

 away from the sea, and specimens taken to inland towns seldom 

 live long, unless kept in a close case. (Plates 35, 41.) 



The Sea Fern has a stout polished stalk to its fronds, the 

 lower part of which is red-brown or purple-brown, the upper 

 part and the continuing winged rachis a bright green. The 

 toothed or lobed pinnae are oval, from an inch to two inches 



