243 



SEA SPLEENWOET. 



My kind friend, Mr, Wollaston, gives me the following direc- 

 tions for cultivating this fern. " The soil should he composed 

 of sandy loam and turfy heath-peat, with a small portion of 

 thoroughly rotten leaf-mould, and it must be kept in a green- 

 house, or in a frame, or covered by a hand-light." Mr. Wol- 

 laston however suggests to me that it might be planted between 

 pieces of stone on rock-work, with a southern aspect, and in a 

 very sheltered situation, protected completely from every ray of 

 sunshine. I find this plant invariably killed by severe frost : 

 I lost every plant in the frost of January, 1854. 



In many of its native localities the sea spleenwort is so firmly 

 fixed in the fissures of the rock as not to be removed without 

 the greatest difficulty, and rarely without the danger of inflict- 

 ing some fatal injury on the caudex and radicles : in other lo- 

 calities it roofs the sand-stone caves, spreading its radicles like 

 a carpet over the soft sandy surface, and may be removed with 

 the greatest ease : under such circumstances its cultivation is 

 comparatively easy. 



