THE SPLEENWORTS. 273 



of the Common Maidenhair Spleenwort may be 

 seen even in the heart of towns, for it will grow 

 on houses and garden walls. Though a rock- 

 loving fern, it will also oftentimes grow with 

 great luxuriance on the soft soil of a sloping 

 hedge-bank. 



Aspleniiim trichomams is evergreen and hardy, 

 enduring bravely through the winter, and sturdily 

 retaining its little bristling stalks, even when 

 their crops of leaves have gone. It is a delightful 

 occupant of the open-air rockery ; but it will 

 grow readily and well in pots. Put it in a high 

 and shady cleft of your rockery give it leaf- 

 mould, and sand, and broken pieces of soft brick 

 or stone and it will always be refreshing and 

 delightful. 



8. THE SEA SPLEENWORT. 

 Asplenium marinum. 



THE habitats of the Sea Spleenwort are sea 

 rocks and dripping sea caves. The instances 

 are very few indeed in which it has been 



18 



