130 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



basal ones, and generally longer and narrower and more trapezoidal ; 

 terminal pinnae smaller ; all distinct, or two or three of them con- 

 fluent with the terminal lobe of the frond, persistent and withering 

 while attached to the rachis. Rachis green, furrowed above, not 

 winged, with a few scale-like hairs, ultimately glabrous. Pinnae with 

 an indistinct flexuous mid-vein, giving off simple or once-forked 

 branches running to the crenatures and nearly reaching the margin. 

 Sori oblong, attached to the lower part of the ultimate veins, and ex- 

 tending below their forks, nearer the midrib than the margin of the 

 pinnse, ultimately confluent. Indusium finely denticulate or crenate, 

 rarely entire. Spores tuberculated, with numerous subacute tubercles. 

 On rocks in mountainous districts, from South Wales and Derby- 

 shire, north to Sutherland and Shetland, but apparently wanting in 

 Orkney. Common in the hilly parts of the north of England and the 

 Highlands of Scotland. It grows also on walls, at low elevations at 

 Danny (Sussex), Mickleham (Surrey), Hambridge (Worcester), and 

 Linnmill (Clackmannan), but there is always a possibility that it may 

 have been planted in such localities. In Ireland it occurs along the 

 west, from Kerry to Donegal. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Caudex usually more elongated and creeping than in the other British 

 Asplenia. Stipes from J to 4 inches long or even more. Lamina 

 from 1 inch long by £ inch broad to 5 inches long by f inch broad, of 

 a pale delicate green colour and thin texture, resembling that of 

 A. lanceolatum. Pinnse generally separated, but in small specimens 

 they are often contiguous, variable in shape ; in large specimens 

 they are usually very broad, truncate at the base, and more or less ovate- 

 rhombic, while in small specimens they are more often wedgeshaped 

 at the base, and longer than broad, always distinctly crenate, and 

 sometimes doubly crenate ; occasionally they are deeply incised, but 

 these appear to be monstrous forms ; sometimes the base is most deve- 

 loped on the anterior side of the mid-vein of the pinnae, so that the 

 form is more or less trapezoidal. The sori are very short and close 

 to the midrib of the pinnae. 



A. viride can be mistaken for no other British fern, except 

 A. Trichomanes ; the differences between these two are pointed out 

 under the latter species. 



Green Spleenwort. 



