A SPLENIUM. 



595 



A. (Euasplenium) lanceolatum— Eu-as-ple' -nt-um ; lan-ee-ol-a'-tum 

 ( spear- shaped ) , II udson. 

 Though found wild in Algiers, Madeira, and the Azores, this pretty, hardy 

 Fern, of small dimensions, is principally a native of South- Western Europe 

 and is found as an indigenous plant in countries extending from England to 

 Greece. The Spear-shaped Spleenwort, as it is commonly called, is an 

 exceedingly interesting species ; its distribution is particularly local, and, 

 although undoubtedly a British Fern, it is of a comparatively delicate habit, 

 growing naturally only in peculiarly sheltered, well-drained, yet moist 



Fig. 111. Frond of Asplenium lanceolatum 



(f nat. size). 



situations. It is in the second edition oi Ray's " Synopsis Methodica 

 Stirpium Britannicarum," published in 1696, that we find this interesting- 

 plant first given as a native of the British Islands, and it is there stated 

 that Dr. Sherard had found it "on the rocks on the north side of the Isle 

 of Jersey." Some thirty years later, in the third edition of the same work, its 

 discovery in England was first noticed, " Mr. Bobart having found it in the 

 north porch of the church at Adderbury, in Oxfordshire. Dr. Woodward also 

 found it in England." In the crevices of rocks and old walls in the South 

 and West of England, and especially about St. Ives, in Cornwall, it appears 

 to grow freely. It has also been met with in Devonshire, Somerset, Sussex, 



4 c 2 



