ASPUENIUM. 69 



tufts in which they occur. The extreme forms are more 

 rare. 



This is one of the more useful evergreen Terns for shady 

 rockwork, as it will grow with freedom if planted in sandy 

 soil, which is just kept moistened either by natural or artifi- 

 cial means. As a pot plant it is easily manageable. 



The blunt-leaved variety alluded to above, is believed to 

 be the A. obtusum, and the narrowed form the A. acutum, 

 of continental authors. 



ASPLENIUM FONTANUM, R, Brown. The Smooth Eock 

 Spleenwort. (Plate XIII. fig. 2.) 



This is a small tufted-growing species, seldom seen more 

 than three or four inches high under ordinary circumstances ; 

 in a hot-house, where its parts become more lengthened, it 

 sometimes reaches six or eight inches high, but we never 

 saw this stature exceeded in cultivated plants, and it is but 

 rarely attained. The small fronds are evergreen, and mostly 

 grow nearly upright ; they are of a narrow, lanceolate form, 

 rather rigid in texture, of a deep green above, paler beneath, 

 and supported on a very short stipes, which has a few 

 narrow, pointed scales at the base. In division they are 

 bipinnate, the pinnse being oblong-ovate, and the pinnules 

 obovate, tapering to the base, the superior basal pinnule of 



