CHAPTER VIII 

 MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT 



Asplenium trichomanes. 



Rootstock caudiciform, slender, branching, chaffy: scales 

 small, lance-linear, acuminate, entire or slightly ciliate, with 

 subopaque, madeira-red or topaz-colored centres, otherwise hya- 

 line or reticulate in similar color: leaves fascicled at rootstock's 

 apex: roots springing singly from junctures of petioles and 

 rootstock. 



Leaves ascending or reclined, often in flattened tufts, two and 

 four-fifths to eight inches long, two-fifths to four-fifths of an inch 

 broad, imperfectly evergreen, the petioles and rachises more or less 

 persistent, the pinnae beginning to drop off in autumn. 



Petioles four-fifths of an inch to four and one-third inches long, 

 purplish or chestnut-brown, glossy, below terete orsubterete; above 

 flattened or slightly furrowed on face, narrowly winged on sides, 

 wings light brown; bearing a few scales at base and sometimes 

 above; scales lanceolate or linear, otherwise similar to scales of 

 rootstock or subopaque centres reduced or lacking: fibrovas- 

 cular bundle solitary, roundish or on face flattish. 



Blades linear, obtuse or short-acuminate, pinnate: apex 

 crenate, often lobed or pinnatifid at base: pinnae alternate or 

 opposite, approximate or the lower more distant, subsessile or 



