644 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



Northern India, growing in Cashmere at 9,000ft., and in Gurhwal at 

 11,000ft., elevation ; it is also a native of the Rocky Mountains and Mexico, 

 while in Europe it is found in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, as well as 

 in France, Germany, Russia, Spain, and Italy. It is, however, as a British 

 plant that it possesses the greatest interest, for it is a pretty, yet curious- 

 looking, very local species, growing in the crevices of rocks or in the 



interstices of loose stone walls, and is by no 

 means common in any part of the British 

 Islands. Its specific name is, no doubt, an 

 indication of its being most frequently found 

 in the northern districts of Great Britain, where 

 it is now considered a very rare Fern. Such, 

 however, was not the case a quarter of a century 

 ago, for although its home then was limited to 

 the extreme northern and western districts of 

 this country (whence it has been nearly 

 eradicated by enthusiastic Fern-gatherers and 

 tourists), yet wherever it did grow, there 

 it was pretty abundant. The places where 

 the Forked Spleenwort is now commonly 

 found growing wild are Craig Dhu, Carnedd 

 Llewellyn, and Snowdon, in Wales ; Ingle- 

 borough, in Yorkshire ; and Patterdale, Kes- 

 wick, and above Ambleside, in Westmoreland • 

 and it is also to be found in Forfarshire, Rox- 

 burghshire, Perthshire, and on the rocks on 

 the southern side of Blackford Hill, near 

 Edinburgh. 



This singular Fern was first noticed by Gerarde, who mistook it for 

 a moss, calling it Muscus corniculatus, Horned or Knagged Moss. The drawing 

 he published of it, however, corresponds exactly with our A. septentrionale. 

 Parkinson recognises it as a Fern, and describes it as the Naked Stone 

 Fern, Filix saxatilis Tragi. Ray writes of it also under the same Lathi 

 name, but calls it the Horned or Forked Maidenhair. 



A. septentrionale is of particularly small dimensions, its fronds seldom 



Fig. 126. Asplenium septentrionale 



(f nat. size). 



