ASPLENIUM. 



607 



good treatment, Its firm, leathery foliage, of a pleasing dark green colour 

 and most peculiarly glossy nature, renders it one of the most distinct of our 

 native Ferns. 



The Sea Spleenwort has for a very long time been known as a British 

 plant, for Johnson, G-erarde's editor, in 1633 wrote: "It grows in the chinks 

 of the rocks by the seaside in Cornwall. ;" Avhereas Gerarde himself, as far 

 back as 1597, stated that "it groweth under shadowy rocks and craggy 

 mountains in most places," which remark is rather too general for useful 

 information. Ray found it " on the rocks about Prestholm Island, near 

 Beaumaris, and at Llandwyn, in the Isle of Anglesey ; about the Castle of 

 Hastings, in Sussex, and elsewhere on the rocks of the Southern Coast." It 

 has also been found on Marsden Rocks, Durham ; in the Isle of Man and 

 the Isle of Staffa, in Berwickshire, Aberdeenshire, Fifeshire, and on the 

 Eastern Coast of Scotland. In Ireland it has been gathered on the Sutton 

 side of Howth Mountain, at Underwood Killiney Hill, and in other places 

 near Derrinane, in Kerry, and frequently on the Western and Southern 

 Coasts ; also in the Isle of Orkney, the Channel Islands, and up the Bristol 

 Channel as far as Clevedon. 



The fronds of the Sea Spleenwort, which in favourable situations and 

 under generous cultivation sometimes attain 20in. in length, are produced 

 from a single succulent crown almost entirely covered with black, chaffy 

 scales, which, however, do not extend along the stalk ; they usually are 

 oblong-spear-shaped, from 6in. to 12in. long and 2in. to 8m. broad, and are 

 borne on tufted, polished stalks 3in. to Gin. long and of a chestnut-brown or 

 nearly black colour. The abundant leaflets are of a leathery texture and 

 bright shining green in colour ; those of the lower half of the frond are 

 quite distinct (Fig. 114), spreading horizontally, lin. or more long, Jin. broad, 

 with their point sometimes sharp but more usually blunt and their margin 

 notched and toothed, slightly truncate (terminating abruptly) below and often 

 auricled (eared) above. The broad sori (spore masses) fall short of the edge. 

 — Hooker, Species Filicum, hi., p. 95. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 i., p. 132. Lowe, Ferns British and Exotic, v., t. 23. 



Although really a British Fern, the Sea Spleenwort does not succeed 

 well in the open in many parts of Great Britain ; whereas it certainly 

 luxuriates in warmth and readily adapts itself to the treatment allowed even 



