56 



ner from the stalk-like base of the pinnules, branching above and 

 extending to the teeth or serratures, without any apparent mid- 

 vein. The sori, produced on the inner side of the veins, are linear 

 elongated and eventually become confluent, covering the whole under 

 side of the pinnule. The indusium, only traceable in the earlier 

 condition of the fructification, is white, and the free inner margin 

 if examined at the time of separation is more or less jagged or 

 uneven, a character of small importance in specific distinction, un- 

 less far more decided than will be found in this instance (see the 

 following species). 



Those who would cultivate this fern should endeavour to obtain 

 it with the roots uninjured, which it is impossible to effect by any 

 other means than removing the brick- or stone-work among which 

 it grows, a process not always agreeable to the owner. When 

 obtained from the fissures of rocks, the principal portion of the 

 fibres is often left behind ; circumstances exceedingly adverse to its 

 after-establishment. Grown in pots, brick rubbish or old mortar 

 with a very small admixture of sandy peat, a strict attention to 

 drainage, free air, and little water, are the conditions on which it 

 may be expected to live, but, like many other common plants, care 

 kills it. Wall specimens, removed with the mortar in which their 

 roots are imbedded, and placed between bricks or stones piled in 

 imitation of the stone-hedges of Wales, and with a little old mortar 

 scattered between them, will generally establish themselves readily, 

 especially if sheltered from the sun and cold winds; for though the 

 plant is often found naturally developed from seed in very exposed 

 places, a certain degree of exclusion may generally be traced in its 

 choice of a habitat. 



ASPLENIUM ALTERNIPOLIUM. Alternate-leaved Spleenwort. TAB. 

 XXXIII. 



Fronds pinnate : pinnae alternate, distant, wedge-shaped, ascend- 

 ing, bifid or trifid at the apex. Indusium entire. 



Asplenium alternifolium, Wulfen. Smith. E. B. 2258. Hooker 

 and Arnott. Asplenium germanicum, Weiss. Babington. 

 Moore. Amesium germanicum, Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, 

 258. 



As a British species this is extremely rare, and, though widely 

 distributed, far from common on the Continent. Its localities agree 

 with those of A. Ruta-muraria, which however it is not found to 

 accompany. Three habitats have been recorded in Scotland ; three 

 miles from Dunfermline, Fifeshire; Stenton Rocks, near Dunkeld, 

 Perthshire ; rocks on the Tweed, two miles from Kelso, Roxburgh- 

 shire. In England it has been met with on Kyloe Crags, Northum- 



