74 FBENS or GREAT BRITAIN. 



than the others. When growing in dry and open 

 places, it is smaller and more blunt in all its parts than 

 when among the bushes of the shadowed lane. It is 

 among the latest of our Perns in unfolding its fronds, 

 which are often not open till the middle of June. They 

 are at first quite erect, forming little tufts, but they 

 gradually lengthen and curve gracefully downwards, 

 retaining their elegance of shape, and even their green 

 hue and fructification, through the winter. The stalk is 

 brown and glossy, about a third of the length of the 

 frond, and has upon it small bristle-like scales, which 

 are also to be found on the rachis. This frond 

 has its branches also of a triangular form, pinnate, and 

 the pinnae alternate, drawn out usually at the top into 

 a long point; each pair gradually lessening from the 

 base towards the top of the frond. The pinnules, too, 

 are triangular and alternate, the lower being deeply -lobed 

 and serrated at the margin. 



The fronds of the Black Spleenwort are not crisp and 

 brittle like those of many ferns, but have a tough and 

 leathery texture, and are much veined. The winding 

 mid-vein of each pinnule is very distinct, and from it' 

 issue veins which are either simple or forked ; one of 

 these lesser veins extending to each point of the serrated 

 margin, and bearing the cluster of capsules. The s^me 

 mode of veining is apparent also in the ultimate divisions 

 of the frond, as well as in the larger lobes, and these 

 bear the clusters near the point at which they unite with 

 the mid-vein, so that the clusters are placed near the 

 centre of every pinnule or lobe. In an early state the 

 clusters are distinct, and are long and narrow ; but as 



