130 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



margin of the indusiura fringed with capillary or hair-like 

 segments, while the sorus in A splenium is not thns curved, 

 and the margin of the indusium is either quite entire or 

 very slightly jagged. The Spleen worts are also evergreen, 

 while Athyrimn is deciduous. There are nine species of 

 Asplenium indigenous to Britain, all of them small plants, 

 interesting to the cultivators of Ferns. 



The word A splenium comes from the Greek asplenon ; 

 a name applied by old authors to some kind of Fern 

 possessed of supposed virtues in curing diseases of the 

 spleen. 



Asplenium septentrionale, Hull. 



The Forked SpleenworL (Plate XII. fig. 3.) 



A rare and diminutive Fern. The habit is tufted, large 

 masses being sometimes formed ; the fronds themselves 

 are very small, from two to four or six inches long, seldom 

 longer, slender, dull green, with a longish stipes, which is 

 dark purple at the base. The leafy part — if, indeed, it 

 can here be called leafy — is of a narrow elongate lance- 

 shaped form, split near the end into two or sometimes 

 three alternate divisions, or in the smaller fronds into the 

 same number of teeth ; each of the divisions of the frond 



