54 



whose merit as decorative plants is, as a rule, a minus- 

 quantity. 



Despite its great difference in specific make and its 

 extreme variability, the Hartstongue is so closely allied 

 to the usually constant Asplenia or Spleenworts that ai 

 successful cross has been achieved between it and Ceterach 

 officinarumby Mr. E. J. Lowe. Evidence of this we possess 

 in the shape of micro-photographs of fronds, apparently of 

 Ceterach, but simplified in form, being almost undivided, 

 while the characteristic double lines of fructification of 

 Scolopendrium are associated clearly with the single one 

 of the Spleenwort family, both features forming a fairly 

 reliable proof of the alliance. Furthermore, in Asp. nidus- 

 avis, the Bird's Nest Fern of the Antipodes, we have a 

 true Spleenwort with simple undivided fronds precisely 

 on the lines of the Hartstongue, but on a much larger 

 scale, and of this curiously enough a ramo-cristate form 

 has been found wild and introduced. In view of this close 

 relationship, we feel sure that judicious sowings of, say, 

 the good fertile crispums, or fine crested forms with Asp. 

 nidus avis> might very probably result in a cross or crosses^, 

 yielding very beautiful varieties of that charming species. 



Another characteristic of the Hartstongue as a relative 

 of the Spleenworts is its capacity of associating itself with- 

 them as a wall or rock grower, since we find it, of course on 

 a reduced scale, in abundance on stone walls in some parts 

 of the country, though it is only in shady plantations with 

 ample root room that it is seen at its best as a robust- 

 growing fern with fronds between two and three feet long. 

 As regards " sports," there is little doubt that the diminu- 

 tive plants found on walls furnish a more likely hunting 

 ground than the robuster full-sized specimens of the shady 

 moorland or sheltered hedgerows which it so much affects, 

 and this for several reasons. In the first place, the search 

 is facilitated by the separation of the individual plants and 





