ASPLENIUM. 



541 



Indeed, to grow it to perfection this Fern requires a close and naturally moist 

 position in the stove, or a place where the stem may easily be kept damp 

 without, however, interfering with the foliage, which when wetted over 

 soon turns a blackish-brown colour. 



A. (Athyrium) Filix-foemina — Ath-yr'-i-um ; FiF-ix-fa^-min-a (the 

 Lady Fern), Bernhardi. 



In point of numbers, Athyrium forms the most extensive section, as 

 also the one containing the most varied subjects as regards forms and sizes, 

 in the whole of the genus Asplenium. So distinct are they in botanical 

 characters that for many years they have been considered by some of our 

 leading authorities as forming a separate genus, holding a place midway 

 between the true Aspleniums and the Nephrodiums or Lastreas ; for the 

 sori (spore masses) are in all cases more or less curved and sometimes even 

 quite horse-shoe-shaped. The plants belonging to the sub-division Athyrium 

 are mostly indigenous in Japan, on the Himalayas, and in North America. 

 The only species which is of very cosmopolitan character, though generally 

 termed British, is Athyrium Filix-foemina of Bernhardi and of Roth, or, as 

 it is popularly called, the " Lady Fern." 



According to Beddome, A. Filix-foemina grows in many parts of India, 

 and is very abundant in the forests of the north bank of the Godavery- 

 Camptee ; on the Himalayas, up to 12,000ft., and also in Japan. It is 

 found wild from the northern part of Europe to Madeira and the Canaries — 

 in Lapland, Russia, and Scandinavia, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, 

 Portugal, &c. — while in Africa it has been reported as a native of Abyssinia, 

 Natal, and the Cameroon Mountains, where it grows up to an elevation of 

 7000ft. ; and it has a wide distribution in America, extending from Sitka 

 and Labrador to Cuba, Caraccas, and Venezuela. Eaton, in his splendid 

 work on the "Ferns of North America" (vol. ii., p. 225), says that A. Filix- 

 fcem.ina is common in most parts of the United States and British America 

 and extends nearly throughout the temperate zone, and that, though growing 

 sometimes in sunny places — as along roadsides and under walls, in which 

 situations it becomes dwarf and more rigid — it is usually found in moist, 

 shady woods and hillsides. This corroborates the innate love of moisture 

 which is peculiar to this Fern and which is so well expressed in the 



