BLACK SPLEENWORT. 43 



that in general outlines the two fronds are altogether unlike 

 each other (Plates 37, 43). 



Its distribution in these islands is limited to the southern 

 kingdom, its most northern station being in Yorkshire, just over 

 the Derbyshire border. Then it runs down the coast of North 

 and South Wales, is rare in Gloucestershire, abundant in parts 

 of West Cornwall, more widely distributed in South Devon, 

 where it extends up to the moors. It has also been recorded 

 for Somerset, and years ago for Tunbridge Wells in Kent, but 

 is no longer there, though a few years ago it was found in the 

 same neighbourhood over the Sussex border. It occurs generally 

 in the Channel Islands ; but in Ireland it is restricted to the 

 county of Cork. Its wider distribution is limited to Europe 

 and North Africa. 



Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum). 



Although this fern is so widely distributed from end to end of 

 our islands, and in places is exceedingly abundant, it does not 

 appear ever to have had a genuine folk-name. In recent years 

 it has been styled in the books Black Maidenhair Spleenwort, 

 but this, besides being a cumbrous, is a misleading name. Its 

 dark, glossy, and somewhat stiff fronds bear no general re- 

 semblance to those of the Maidenhair, and the only detail which 

 suggests a likeness to Adiantum capillus-'ueneris is the polished 

 purple-brown stipes ; but the maiden who had hair in any way 

 approaching it in coarseness would not consider it as her glory. 

 Lyte, in his " Niewe Herball," mentions this fern under the 

 names of Black Oak-fern and Petty-fern, but whether these 

 names were in use among the people at that date (1578) is very 

 doubtful. Gerarde, 20 years later, says that Black Oke-fern 

 was a name of the Herbarists. " Unlearned apothecaries," he 

 says, used it for Adiantum of Lumbardie, " but these men do 

 erre." We have elected to call it simply Black Spleenwort, as 



