80 



A FERN BOOK FOR EVERYBODY. 



expectorant by the peasantry of Scotland ; the practicOj 

 however, seems to have been discontinued. 



SEA SPLEENWOET.^ 



The fronds of the sea-side fern are from 5 to 9 inches 

 m length, though most commonly about 6 inches. The 

 outline is of a narrow spear shape, and it is of a more 

 robust habit than the G-reen Spleenwort and Wall Spleen- 

 wort. The leaf-stalk is dark brown, and bare for the lower 

 third of its length ; throughout the rest the leaflets are 

 arranged on opposite sides of the leaf-stalk. Each leaflet 

 is an irregular oblong, widened at the base into a blunt 

 projection on the upper edge. The margin of the leaflets 

 is irregularly notched all round. The spore-cases are in 

 rows on each side of the mid-ribs of the leaflets, the rows 

 being oblique and parallel. (Plate VII., fig. 2.) 



This fern is confined to within a mile or two of the 

 sea in the south-west and the Channel Islands, in moist, 

 rocky situations. It cannot be cultivated successfully out 

 of doors, but will accommodate itself to a fern-case ex- 

 ceedingly well, and succeed as a pot plant in a greenhouse. 



The author of " Eerny Combes" says, "This plant 

 grows in shady nooks, among the clifls, attaining the 

 greatest size where some small spring finds its way through 

 the rock. In such a position we found it one lovely sum- 

 mer evening, just as the sun was sinking like a ball of 

 fire into the Atlantic, gilding the craggy clifls and shining 

 yellow sand with its last rays, a little to the right of 

 Hartland Quay, at the entrance of a large cave, in com- 

 pany with Osmunda, within the reach of the spray." 



EOCK SPLEENWOET.t 



All about Tan-y-bwlch and along the road to Tremadoc 

 has many a weary collector sought in vain for this " miss- 

 ing fern." Here it is said to have been found, and in 



'^Asplenium marinum, Lini^". 



t Aspleniumfo7itamm, Bernh. 



