THE SPLEENWORTS. 265 



leaf-mould. It will grow readily in pots, but must 

 be planted amongst the stones in which it de- 

 lights. 



5. THE LANCEOLATE SPLEENWORT. 



Asplenium lanceolatum. 



THERE is so much similarity between the 

 Lanceolate and the Black Maidenhair Spleen- 

 wort, that fern-hunters are in danger oftentimes 

 of mistaking the one for the other. But there 

 is one mark by which the two ferns can be un- 

 mistakably distinguished from each other. In 

 the Black Maidenhair the frond is broadest at 

 its base, and tapers upwards gradually to its 

 point ; it is, in fact, distinctly triangular. In 

 Lanceolatum, on the contrary, the frond is 

 broadest about the centre of its leafy part ; and 

 from thence it tapers in both directions to its tip 

 and to its base. In other respects the description 

 of the fronds of Adiantum nigrum will very nearly 

 apply to those of Lanceolatum, with this general 

 difference, that the widest branches of the fronds of 



