ASPLENIUM VIRIDE. Green Spleenwort. TAB. XXXI. 



Fronds linear, pinnate : pinnse alternate, rhomboidal or roundish- 

 ovate, crenated, stalked. Rachis green. 



Asplenium viridc, Hudson. Smith. E. B. 2257. Hooker and 

 Arnott. Babington. Moore. Newman. A. Trichomanes 

 j amosum, Linnaeus. 



Chiefly confined to mountainous and rocky districts, and delight- 

 ing in the vicinity of rills and waterfalls, but occasionally found 

 elsewhere. It is a local rather than a rare species, and is very 

 liable to be passed over as a form of A. Trichomanes, which it 

 nearly resembles in general appearance, though usually growing 

 more erect than the ordinary state of that species. The whole 

 plant is however of a paler hue, especially the rachis, which, though 

 dark brown or purple at the base, is always light green or yellowish 

 above. The fronds are tufted, in dry situations two or three inches 

 long, in moist ones ten inches to a foot. About one-third of the 

 rachis is bare : the pinna? are usually more distant than those of 

 the preceding fern; they are very variable in form, but most 

 frequently tend to the rhomboidal ; the margin, too, is more or 

 less deeply crenated. The lateral veins are generally alternate 

 and forked, and the sori are produced near the point of division, 

 rarely at or iiear the extremity of the upper venule as in A. 

 Trichomanes. 



A tendency to divide dichotomously is more remarkable in the 

 fronds of this fern than in those of the preceding, and originated 

 the Linnsean specific name. 



In the vicinity of London the cultivation of A. viride is far from 

 being satisfactory ; it does not succeed well in the open air, and is 

 apt to damp off under confinement. Among the various kinds of 

 treatment to which it has been subjected, I have not hitherto had 

 reason to congratulate myself as to the result ; the plants live, but 

 cannot be said to flourish ; they send out new fronds strong and 

 well-conditioned in the early summer, and then, in whatever situa- 

 tion they may be placed, gradually assume an unhealthy appear- 

 ance, which characterizes them during the greater part of the year. 

 A mixture of broken freestone and sandy peat seems to succeed 

 best as soil, and the pots should be one-third filled with draining 

 material, the upper part of which should consist of charcoal broken 

 into small fragments : I believe the chief value of this latter me- 

 dium, as applied to fern cultivation, consists in its absorbing and 

 antiseptic qualities, which enable it to retain moisture, and at the 

 same time to counteract the effects of it in a stagnant condition 

 upon the soil. The foregoing remarks are only to be considered 

 as applicable to the metropolitan climate; in a purer air and moist 



