THE LANCEOLATE SPLEENWORT. 121 



lona, and Islay. In Ireland, in the counties of 

 Antrim, Clare, Cork, Down, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, 

 and Kilkenny ; in King's County, Limerick, Louth, 

 Meath, Tipperary, Waterford, and Wicklow ; also in 

 the Arran Isles. It is found growing at various eleva- 

 tions extending up to nearly two thousand feet about 

 the sea-level. 



XLII. THE LANCEOLATE SPLEENWORT. 



Asplenium lanceolatum. 

 (Plate XIII., Figs. 2 and 3, page 73.) 



LENGTH OF FROND. Four to eighteen inches. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Roots long, fibrous, wiry, 

 abundant. Rootstock somewhat large, dark brown, scaly, 

 tufted. Fronds evergreen, lance-shaped (distinguished 

 by this feature from the triangular fronds of Asplenium 

 adiantum-nigrum, which it otherwise resembles) ; stipes 

 a third the length of the leafy part and sometimes less 

 in proportion, purplish red in colour, the same hue 

 being noticeable, in a greater or less degree, on the 

 rachis ; leafy part bright green, bipinnate ; pinnae 

 opposite -or alternate on the rachis, narrowly triangular, 

 divided into alternate and in well-developed specimens 

 distinctly stalked, fan-shaped, or four-sided and in- 

 dented pinnules. Fructification produced over the 

 entire under surface of the frond, and consisting of sori 

 which, though elongated as in the Spleenworts gene- 

 rally are less elongated than those of Asplenium 

 adiantum-nigrum. When the indusia fall off, the sori 

 become rounded in form and somewhat bulged out as 

 the sporangia increase by development ; but each sorus 

 ordinarily remains distinct from the others, and thus 

 presents another feature which distinguishes this species 



