ASPLEN I UM. 



637 



A. r. prolongatum — pro-lon-ga'-tum (prolonged), Hooker. 



This is a variety which, on account of the drooping habit of its fronds 

 and of their highly proliferous nature, is very distinct from the original 

 species. It is indigenous in Southern India, and, according to Beddome, is 

 abundant on the Shevagherry Hills, although rare in other localities. Its 

 fronds, 4in. to Gin. long, of the same leathery texture as those of the species, 

 suddenly terminate in a caudate (tail-like), naked extension of the rachis, lin. 

 to 2in. long, having at its extremity a proliferous bulbil. The leaflets are 

 divided and subdivided much in the same way as those of A. rutcefolium, 

 but they are less closely placed, and the spore masses are disposed on the 

 margin of the pinnules as is the case in the species. — Hooker, Species Filicum, 

 hi., p. 209. Beddome, Ferns of Southern India, t. 138. 



A. (Euasplenium) Ruta-muraria — Eu-as-ple'-m-um ; Ru'-ta-mu- 

 ra'-ri-a (Wall-Rue), Linnceus. 

 This singular little Fern, which derives its name from the great re- 

 semblance of its fronds to the leaves of the common Rue and also from 

 its most natural position, as it is rarely found growing wild anywhere but 

 in the mortar on old walls, is of a particularly cosmopolitan character. In 

 Continental Europe it is found from France to Italy, Spain, and Portugal, 

 and from Belgium to Germany, Russia, and Norway. It is equally found wild 

 in Algeria, in Cashmere, Tibet, and Siberia ; while as a North American Fern, 

 Eaton tells us that " the Wall- Rue is found in clefts of calcareous rocks from 

 Vermont to North Carolina and westward to Indiana and Tennessee," but 

 that "it is, not seen on walls in America." Yet this is the situation in which 

 this curious and interesting Fern, of a peculiar bluish colour and distinct from 

 all other British species, is usually found in England, where it mostly inhabits 

 the Southern and Midland Counties, on either brick or stone walls, more 

 especially on the northern side, and preferring to mount up the walls as high 

 as possible. It is in such positions that we have gathered it on the walls 

 of Ragley Hall, in Warwickshire, where it grows in company with the 

 Maidenhair Spleenwort (A. Trichomanes) ; in drier situations it dwells 

 alone, whereas in moister localities it generally has as its companions 

 Cystopteris fragilis and A. Ceterach (or, as it is most commonly called, 

 Ceteraeh ojjicinarum). It is found principally in the Isle of Wight and 



