ASPLENIUM. 29 



Aspidium, to which it has sometimes been 

 referred. The shape of the sori also would 

 almost rank it intermediately, they being, 

 more or less according to age, variations, 

 &c. like an elongated and rather straight- 

 ened kidney, and therefore a mixture of 

 the forms of both genera. Very compound. 

 Fronds light, feathery, succulent, generally 

 drooping, and while young and tender not 

 unfrequently soon shrivelling up after 

 being gathered. Pinnse alternate, com- 

 mencing near the bottom, and much ab- 

 breviated there. Pinnules very short- 

 stalked, sometimes hardly to be called so, 

 and verging on mere pinnulets, numerous, 

 long, narrow, deeply and repeatedly divided 

 and toothed; in some a trifle more ex- 

 panded and closer together ; in others 

 apart and contracted ; but in all thin and 

 slender. Sori appearing on the yet curled- 

 up head, and covering the back of the pin- 

 nule eventually so abundantly, that it is 

 supposed that in twenty years a single 

 plant might, in its increase, clothe the 

 whole surface of the earth. End of May. 

 Deciduous, and early cut down by the 

 frosts of autumn. Very changeable in 

 form, tint of colour, flexibility, &c. besides 

 distinct and rarer varieties, tasselled, 

 forked, and so forth. Common. Easy of 



