27. MOUNTAIN 

 SPLEENWORT 



Asplenium montanum 



Connecticut and New York 

 to Georgia. A small rock 

 fern from two to eight 

 inches long, with stalks 

 brown at base. 



Fronds. Ovate-lanceolate in outline, 

 somewhat leathery, cut into oblong pinnae, 

 the lower ones of which are cut again into 

 more or less oblong, toothed divisions, the up- 

 per ones less and less divided ; rachis green, 

 broad, flat ; fruit-dots linear, short; indusium 

 thin, hidden at length by the sporangia, which 

 mature in July. 



With us this plant is decidedly 

 rare. New York and Connecticut 

 are given as its northern limits. I 

 have found it only in one locality, in the neighbor- 

 hood of a mountain lake in Ulster County, N. Y. 

 Though growing here somewhat abundantly, the 

 fern is so small that, unless your eyes are trained to 

 search every cranny in the hope of some new find, 

 you are not likely to notice it. Even with trained 

 eyes you may readily fancy that the narrow chinks 

 in the cliffs which rise sheerly from the lake- are 

 merely patched with moss. But when you have 



pulled your boat close under the shelving rocks, 



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