ASPLENIUM. ■ 145 



Asplenium lanceolatum, Hudson. 

 The Lanceolate Spleenwort. (Plate XII. fig. 1.) 



We have here an evergreen Fern of variable size, seldom 

 in cultivation having the vigour which it exhibits near 

 the coast in our south-western counties, and especially in 

 the Channel Islands. As might be expected, it evidently 

 requires a mild and sheltered climate, so that in a hot- 

 house, where the temperature is not kept too high, it 

 grows freely, which cannot always be said of plants kept in 

 a cold frame in the climate of London, and never of plants 

 fully exposed. 



Under the least favourable circumstances, the fronds of 

 this Fern are from four to six inches long; • but under the 

 most favourable conditions they reach the length of a foot, 

 or even a foot and a half. They are of a lanceolate form, 

 supported on a brownish-coloured stipes of about a third of 

 their entire length, the stipes as well as the rachis having, 

 scattered throughout their length, numerous small bristle- 

 like scales. In the more vigorous wild plants the habit 

 seems to be erect, but the cultivated plants mostly assume 

 a spreading or even decumbent mode of growth. Tiiis 

 species is very closely related to the common Asplenium 



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