THE SPLEENWORTS. 261 



easy of cultivation. It should be planted between 

 fragments of stone in such a manner as to imitate, 

 as nearly as possible, its natural conditions ; and 

 for soil it must have sandy leaf-mould and old 

 pieces of mortar. 



4. THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 

 Asplenhtm adiantum nigrum. 



THE Black Maidenhair is, perhaps, the most 

 elegant of the Spleenworts, chiefly on account 

 of the elaborate and beautiful manner in which 

 its fronds are divided. It grows from a very 

 tufted root-stock, and throws up thick clusters of 

 fronds, which vary considerably in height. Some- 

 times, when growing on walls in somewhat dry 

 and exposed situations, it may be found no more 

 than an inch or two or three inches high. But 

 when it is in situations more congenial to it, and 

 under conditions such as will be presently de- 

 scribed, it attains a height of from eighteen inches 

 to two feet, and possesses an elegance almost 



