172 THE ROCK SPLEENWORTS. 
somewhat doubtful evidence. The first is .tsplenutium 
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 pinnz 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. foutanum 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 
