ASPLENIUM. 149 



which this bluntness of the parts seems characteristic 

 beino- named ohtusatum. This difference often becomes less 

 marked in the cultivated plants than in those which occur 

 in a wild state ; and there exist, even among the wild, 

 many gradations of form. The species has also been met 

 with having the fronds variegated with white. 



The variety acutum, sometimes called the Acute Spleen- 

 wort (Plate XXII. fig. 2), differs principally in the more 

 decidedly three-cornered fronds, which, in consequence of 

 their shortness and breadth, and the high development 

 of their basal pinnules, form a nearly equilateral triangle ; 

 in the very much attenuated apices of the fronds and their 

 pinnae, which are, in fact, what is called caudate ; and in 

 the extreme narrowness of the ultimate segments into 

 which the very much divided frond is cut, these segments 

 being narrow, linear, and acute. The fronds grow a foot 

 or upwards in length, including a long brown stipes. In 

 large specimens the leafy portion is about six inches long, 

 and as much across the base, triangular, tripinnate. The 

 lower pinn89 are considerably larger than the next pair, 

 and elongately triangular. The primary pinnules are 

 ovate-acuminate ; the secondary pinnules lozenge-shaped, 

 these latter being cut down almost to the centre into linear 



