ASPLENIUM EBENOIDES. 

 SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT. 



NATURAL ORDER. FILICES. 



AsPLENlUM EBENOIDES, R. R. Scott. — Fronds evergreen. Barren fronds spreading, four to six 

 inches long, lanceolate, pinnate at the base, pinnatifid towards the apex, tapering into a 

 slender prolongation; apex rooting; rachis black. Fertile fronds eight to ten inches long, 

 nearly upright, pinnate at the base; pinnules of unequal length, an inch or more long, 

 linear lanceolate ; frond tapering into a slender prolongation which is sinuous and prolif- 

 erous, mid-rib permanent to the apex ; fronds more membranaceous than Aspleniuni pin- 

 natifidum, which, with the i)lack rachis, distinguishes it from that species. (R. Robinson 

 Scott, in Gardener'' s JMontlily for September, 1865. See also Gray's Mamtal of lite 

 Botany of the iVort/iern United States, Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, 

 and Eaton's Ferns of North America.') 



HIS interesting fern has a remarkable history. A single 

 plant was discovered in 1862, eight miles from Phila- 

 delphia, on the west bank of the Schuylkill, by Robert Robinson 

 Scott, then gardener to Mr. Kennedy, of Port Kennedy. Mr. 

 Scott was no ordinary man. He was related to some of the 

 wealthiest families of Belfast, in Ireland, where he was born 

 and received an excellent education. He was a proficient in 

 most of the ancient and many of the modern languages, and 

 early developed a taste for natural history, and especially for 

 Botany. He went through a course of study in the Botanic 

 Garden of Glasnevin, and subsequendy in the Royal Gardens at 

 Kew. His father had a passionate love for his nadve land which 

 the son inherited, and their course in this respect estranged them 

 from their relations, and finally reduced them to absolute poverty. 

 It was particularly a trait in the young botanist's character that 

 he would sacrifice on the instant every prospect of usefulness in 

 his chosen scientific career, for his ideal of liberty and freedom. 



