PHYLLITIS SCOLOPENDRIDM. 273 



natural division of the great Linnean group Asplenium, which 

 still requires a generic appellation : in this case the original 

 and well-known term Phyllitis may with much propriety be 

 employed. 



I believe this handsome species is found in every country 

 throughout Europe, but is very sparingly distributed towards 

 the North. It is said to have been found in the United States, 

 but is there considered one of the rarest of ferns. I know no- 

 thing of it in Africa, Asia, or South America. 



The hart's tongue is a particularly handsome and ornamen- 

 tal fern : its habit is well marked, and very decidedly different 

 from that of every other British species. I believe it is uni- 

 versally, although not abundantly distributed : it so frequently 

 grows in the thickest part of hedges that it may readily escape 

 observation, and thus does not appear so abundant as it really 

 is. In Scotland I found it sparingly distributed, but I never 

 passed a day without recognizing it in some few locaUties. In 

 Ireland it is much more abundant : it is not only scattered gene- 

 rally over the island, but occurs in some localities in very great 

 abundance, particularly in the neighbom'hood of Sligo, and in 

 the demesne of Muckruss, near Killarney ; here it grows among 

 the underwood, in the shrubberies, &c., in large luxuriant tufts, 

 the fronds radiating from a common centre, and each being 

 gracefully arched in a semicircle, like the long feathers of a 

 cock's tail, (see page 276). The hart's tongue is very commonly 

 found upon walls and ruins ; and it seems particularly to de- 

 light in old wells, in which last situation its fronds sometimes 

 grow to a very large size. 



The radicles are black, stout, and very long and strong : the 

 caudex is tufted, blackish, scaly, and almost spherical : the 

 young fronds make their appearance in April, growing in an 

 erect position, the apex remaining circinate ; by degrees they 



