ASPLENIUM PINNATIFIDUM. 

 PINNATIFID SPLEEN-WORT. 



NATURAL ORDER, FILICES. 



ASPLENIUM PINNATIFIDUM, Nuttall. — Fronds (three to four inches long) lanceolate, pinnatifid, 

 or pinnate below, tapering above into a slender prolongation, " the apex sometimes root- 

 ing;" lobes roundish-ovate, obtuse, or the lowest pair long-acuminate ; fruit-dots irregular, 

 those next the mid-rib often double, even the slender prolongation fertile. (Gray's Botany 

 of (he N'oi-lhern United States ; see also Chapman's Flora of the SotUhern United States, 

 Eaton's Ferns of North America, Williamson's Ferns of Kentucky, and Wood's Class- 

 Book of Botany under the name o{ Antigranima pinnatifida.) 



HILE admiring the rare beauty of this little fern as exhib- 

 ited in our plate the reader may come across Mr, Wil- 

 liamson's remark that " this species is one of the most unat- 

 tractive of the whole genus," and may pause to inquire whether 

 the first favorable impression be correct. But its true beauty 

 becomes more apparent under a critical examination, and we 

 conclude that Kentucky plants do not grow as pretty as the speci- 

 men illustrated, which was taken from the location near Philadel- 

 phia where the species was first found. The beauty is of the slen- 

 der sylph-like type, and yet there is enough of an air of solidity to 

 warrant a more substantial claim. The combination of straight 

 lines with curves is singularly happy ; and though the transition 

 from the straight line of the stipe to the curved divisions of the 

 frond is somewhat sudden, this at length gives beauty by the 

 contrast which it makes to the gentle flowing aw^ay of the curves 

 Into the straight prolongation at the apex. Again, there is real 

 beauty in the gentle passing of the brown into the green at the 

 base of the fronds, while the rich brown color of the fruit dots in 



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