i 72 THE ROCK SPLEENWORTS. 



somewhat doubtful evidence. The first is Asplenium 

 marinum which fifty years ago was reported from Nova 

 Scotia and Newfoundland. No specimens of it from 

 America are known at present and it is supposed that 

 the fern was referred to this country by mistake. The 

 plant is not uncommon along the coast on the other side 

 of the Atlantic and may yet be found in New England 

 on some rocky ledge near the sea. It is an evergreen 

 species, growing in tufts, with thick linear-lanceolate 

 fronds of a deep glossy green. They are usually about 

 six inches long and borne on short dark-brown stipes. 

 The blade is simply pinnate with short, broad, blunt, 

 toothed pinnae connected along the rachis by a narrow 

 wing of tissue. 



As to the second species, Asplenium fontanum, the 

 evidence is fully as uncertain. It is supposed to 

 have been collected near Williamsport, Lycoming Co., 

 Penn., in 1869 and sent with other specimens to Prof. 

 T. C. Porter of Lafayette College, where it lay 

 unrecognised for twenty years. By the time the plants 

 were identified as specimens of A. fontanum and con- 

 nected with the Williamsport locality, the collector had 

 died and with him died the knowledge of the exact 

 locality for the plant, if, indeed, he ever collected it. 

 Two sharp-eyed collectors who at once ransacked 

 the general region returned empty handed and no trace 

 of it has since been found. Later another locality for 

 the plant was reported from Ohio, also by Prof. Porter, 

 who found specimens among plants distributed by a 

 local collector. No locality for these specimens has 

 since been found and it would seem that the plant has 

 been mistakenly ascribed to America. The fern is 

 common in the Old World, however, and possibly may 



