THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 1 19 



the counties of Aberdeen, Argyle, Ayr, Banff, Ber- 

 wick, Caithness, Clackmannan, Cromarty, Dumbarton, 

 Dumfries, Edinburgh, Elgin, Fife, Forfar, Haddington, 

 Inverness, Kincardine, Kinross, Kirkcudbright, Lanark, 

 Linlithgow, Nairn, Orkney, Peebles, Perth, Renfrew, 

 Roxburgh, Selkirk, Stirling, and Sutherland; also in 

 the islands of Ailsa Craig, Cantyre, Harris, lona, Islay, 

 and Uist. In Ireland, in the counties of Armagh, Clare, 

 Cork, Down, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, and Kilkenny; in 

 King's County, Limerick, Louth, Tipperary, Waterford, 

 and Wicklow. It is also found in Jersey. Asplenium 

 ruta-muraria grows at elevations extending to about 

 two thousand feet above the sea-level. 



XLI. THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 



Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. 



(Plate III., page 53.) 



LENGTH OF FROND. An inch to two feet, according 

 to its more or less exposed, sunny and stony, or sheltered, 

 shady, moist, and in other ways congenial position. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Roots long, fibrous, wiry, 

 abundant. Rootstock small, tufted, scaly. Fronds ever- 

 green, numerous ; stipes and rachis mqre or less purple ; 

 stipes equal in length to the leafy part, sometimes a little 

 shorter, and sometimes a little longer ; leafy part trian- 

 gular, dark shining-green, with alternated, triangular 

 pinnae, divided into narrow, elongated, and variously- 

 shaped pinnules, which, in turn, are sub-divided into more 

 or less deeply-indented lobes the ultimate divisions 

 depending upon the more or less luxuriant state of the 

 plant. Fructification produced in the form of elongated 

 sori covered by elongated, pale-green indusia. When 



