GROUP V 



FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 

 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 



28. EBONY SPLEENWORT 



Asplenium ebeneum (A. platynturon) 



Maine to Florida and westward, on rocks and hill-sides. Nine to 

 eighteen inches high, with blackish and shining stalks. 



Fronds. — Upright, narrowly oblanceolate, fertile fronds much 

 the taller, once-pinnate ; pinna usually alternate, oblong, finely 

 toothed, the base auricled on the upper or on both sides ; fruit- 

 dots many, oblong, nearer midvein than margin ; indusium silvery 

 till maturity. 



The slender fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort hold 

 themselves with a sort of rigid grace which suggests 

 a combination of delicacy and 

 endurance. 



It is an attractive plant with 

 an elusiveness of habit which 

 serves, perhaps, to increase its 

 charm. Its range is from Maine 

 to Florida and westward ; it is 

 said to prefer limestone soil, 

 and my past experience has 

 proved it a fairly common plant, yet so far this sum- 

 mer, in many expeditions in a part of the country 

 rich in limestone, I have found only one 

 specimen, while last year along the road- 

 sides of Long Island I found its black- 

 stemmed fronds standing erect and slim 

 in crowded ranks under groups of red 

 cedars. In other years it has abounded 

 in localities of a different character, 

 sometimes following its little relative, the Maiden- 

 hair Spleenwort, into moist ravines or along 



Portion of fertile frond 



