78 FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



colour is either dark deep green, or sometimes of a sea- 

 green tint. When growing on exposed spots, they are 

 covered with sea-green powder. Some of the larger 

 fronds are again divided, and their pinnules cut down 

 nearly to the mid-vein, the lobes having the usual form 

 of the pinnules. Little tufts of this plant, however, 

 may be found in which the fronds are pinnate only, 

 with pinnatifid pinnae. The pinnules of this fern are 

 like little leaves, each on a stalk, and with the upper 

 margin irregularly toothed. 



There is no mid-vein in the pinnules of this fern, but 

 the veins radiate from the stalk towards the margin in 

 a fan-shaped direction, and on them are borne the 

 narrow lines of the clusters of fructification; these are 

 at first covered by a membranous indusium, the free 

 margin of which is jagged and uneven. As the capsules 

 increase in size, the indusium turns back and finally 

 disappears. 



This fern is sometimes called Scolopendrium, or Ame- 

 sium Buta-murdria ; and one of its old English names. 

 White Maiden Hair, was probably given because of the 

 Hght-coloured powder sometimes seen on its fronds. 

 It was of old renown among the herbalists as a cure for 

 coughs, and affords a slight degree of mucilage. 



5. A. Germdnicum (Alternate-leaved Spleenwort). — 

 Fronds simply and alternately pinnate ; pinnules narrow, 

 wedge-shaped. This is one of the rarest of British 

 ferns, and is found on rocks in a few places in Scotland 

 and 1;he north of England. It was formerly consi- 

 dered but a variety of the Wall-rue, but its characteristics 

 seem quite distinct and permanent. The frond, which 



