44 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND FERNS. 



we already have the prefix "Maidenhair" to one species of 

 Spleenwort, and we have found that this similarity of popular 

 names causes great confusion among those with whom the 

 botanical names are not in general use. 



The Black Spleenwort is, strictly speaking, a rock fern like 

 the Spear-shaped Spleenwort, but the rocks it affects are drier 

 than those selected by its congener; often its rootstock will 

 be under a mass of stone that projects out of the hedgebank. 

 But it has taken kindly to man's work, and may frequently 

 be found growing out of a wall. In Cornwall, where it is 

 specially abundant, many of the hedgebanks in the hollow lanes 

 are of the distinctly rocky order, the road in places having been 

 cut through solid rock to reduce steep gradients. Here the 

 Black Spleenwort will be found growing all up the rock-walls, 

 springing from every crevice. But it will be found in greatest 

 profusion where one of the clever Cornish hedgers has built up 

 a long unmortared boundary wall with flakes of rock set on 

 their edges and worked in archaic designs. To such a wall the 

 Black Spleenwort often lays entire claim, and covers it with 

 a shining dark-green tapestry, the rootstocks being quite hidden 

 away, far back between the stones. 



These rootstocks are stout and covered with awl-shaped 

 scales. The stipes or frond-stalk is very long to enable it to 

 pass through the stony passage between the rootstock and the 

 outer air where the leafy portion of the frond expands. The 

 entire frond varies from a foot to twenty inches or so, and 

 of this length about one-half is accounted for by the stipes. In 

 consequence of this great proportion of stalk, the extraction of 

 a Black Spleenwort from one of these recesses (a matter of 

 considerable difficulty) causes great disappointment to the fern- 

 hunter. It is the case of Humpty-dumpty all the king's 

 horses and all the king's men cannot set the Black Spleenwort 

 up again. The slender stalks refuse any longer to support the 

 heavy fronds, but snap or twist under the weight that had 



