70 BRITISH FERNS. 



RUE-LEAVED SPLEENWORT. 



ASPLENIUM RUTA-MURARIA of Authors. 



Asplenium murale. Gray. 



Asplenium aermanicum. Willdenow. ^ 



f V CLT o. 



Asplenium alternifolium. Wulfen, Smith, Francis. ) 



LOCALITIES. 



ENGLAND. "\ 



Universally distributed. 



IRELAND. 



THE Wall Rue, or Rue-leaved Spleenwort, is one of those 

 plants, which, like our half-domesticated birds, the sparrow, the 

 swallow, and the martin, seem to have deserted their native 

 wilds, and to have taken up their residence amongst the habit- 

 ations of men. It is abundant on ruins and on old churches, 

 walls, and bridges, and this equally whether they be built of 

 brick or stone ; although Ray * asserts, and subsequent authors 

 have repeated, that when it gets upon burnt bricks, it dies : this 

 misstatement must, I think, have arisen in the first instance from 

 a slip of the pen, or, perhaps, a misprint, and not from a hasty or 

 incorrect observation; for so carefully observant a man as Ray 

 must have frequently seen it flourishing in the crumbling mortar, 

 filling the interstices of brick buildings : we need wander no 

 further from London than the wall of Greenwich Park, and here 

 it will be found abundantly on the brick, but very rarely on the 

 stone. Throughout the northern, western, and southern 

 counties of England, and also in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 

 this fern is to be found on almost every ruin. In a perfectly wild 

 state, it grows abundantly on the rocky hills in Scotland, par- 

 ticularly on Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh ; in the Peak district 

 of Derbyshire ; on Cader Idris, and Snowdon sparingly. 



The roots of Asplenium ruta-muraria are wiry and black ; the 

 rhizoma is black, tufted, and clothed with bristly scales: the 

 fronds make their appearance in May and June, arrive at 

 maturity in September, and continue perfectly green throughout 

 the winter, and until the ensuing May : they are always fertile. 



* The assertion is only in the 3d Edition, edited by Dillenius. 



