72 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



moisture, has been made for it ; but planted in a well- drained 

 pot, and kept in a close, cold frame, or in a damp hot-house, 

 it grows freely, becoming much more vigorous under the in- 

 fluence of heat. 



The other names which have been given to this Fern, 

 besides that here adopted, are these : Aspidium fontanum, 

 Athyrium fontannm, Polypodium fontanum, and Aspidium 

 Halleri. 



ASPLENIUM GERMANICUM, Weiss. The Alternate Spleen- 

 wort. (Plate XIII. fig. 3.) 



One of the rarest of our native Ferns, and perfectly dis- 

 tinct from A. Ruta-mtraria, of which some botanists have 

 thought it to be a variety. It grows in little tufts, the 

 fronds being from three to six inches high, sub-evergreen, 

 narrow-linear in form, pinnate, divided into distant, alternate, 

 wedge-shaped pinnse, one or two of the lowest having gene- 

 rally a pair of very deeply divided lobes, the upper ones 

 more and more slightly lobed, all having their upper ends 

 toothed or notched. 



The whole fronds are quite small, arid the parts narrow, 

 which, added to their opacity, renders the venation indis- 

 tinct ; there is no midvein, but each pinna or lobe has a 

 vein entering from the base, which becomes two or three 



