CO 



BRITISH FERNS. 



away ; and also from the dry hot air of our summers. The 

 object of covering il with a glass is to avoid both these casual- 

 ties, and provided it is not kept too close it will then thrive 

 well. The proper bell-glasses for these half-hardy Ferns are 

 those with a small opening in the crown, which may be 

 closed or not at pleasure, but, in general, is best left open. 

 In pots it should have a gritty, porous soil. 



COMMON MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 



This Fern is called Asplenium Trklwmanes. It has also 

 had the names of Asplemum, melanocaulon, and Asplenium 

 saxatile. 



__ ._ It is rather a diminutive plant, but 



has a very interesting appearance, from the 

 black stipes and rachis, and the regularity 

 with which the bright green pinnas are dis- 

 posed. It grows in tufts, naturally intro- 

 ducing itself into the joints of old masonry 

 and among .the crevices of rocks, and pro- 

 ducing numerous small slender fronds, of 

 a linear form, in its most vigorous state 

 nearly a foot long, but generally from three 

 to six inches. They are evergreen, simply 

 pinnate, on a rather short stipes, which is 

 of a purplish-black, the rachis also being of 

 the same dark colour. The pinnae are deep 

 green, small and numerous, equal-sized, of 

 a roundish-oblong figure, attached to the 

 rachis by a stalk-like projection of their 

 posterior base ; the margin is rather entire 

 or crenated. The pinnae are jointed to the 

 rachis, and when old are readily displaced, 

 so that eventually the black rachis is left 

 denuded among the tuft of fronds. A dis- 

 tinct midvein passes through each pinna, 

 giving off on each side a series of venules 

 bearing veinlets, the anterior of these pro- 

 ducing the linear sorus just within the 

 margin of the pinnae. The sori, which in 

 the young state are covered by thin indusia 

 having a somewhat crenulated free margin, 

 A " P man ,?**"" ver y frequently in a later stage become 

 confluent, and cover the whole of the 

 under surface. 

 A very rare and very curious variety of this species, named 



