122 HA?;m r 1500K OF 
length, uniformly unclothed. "The normal form of the 
frdnd is triangular and pinnate, the pinnae being alter- 
nate, and also pinnate ; the pinnulse are of varied form, but 
mostly somewhat triangular or lozenge-shaped; their exterior 
margin is generally serrated." 
' ' Veins radiate from the stack to the exterior margin of the 
pinnula), and to these are attached the elongate linear masses 
of theete, two, three, four, and even five on each pinnula? 
these are at first covered with an elongate, linear, white in- 
dusium, which is pushed aside by the growing thecae, turned 
back , and finally lost, the back of the pinnula becoming 
eventually covered with a dense brown mass of thecse." 
Newman speaks of a remarkable form of the Rue-leaved 
spleenwort, found in several localities throughout Germany, 
Hungary, and Scotland, and considered by botanists as a 
distinct species, under the name of Asplenium germanicum, 
or A . alternifolium. A representation of the plant, copied 
from his History of British Ferns, page 71, and named by 
him the alternate type of A. ruta muraria, is given above 
A. A. "The form of the frond is elongate and pinnate; the 
pinna? are distant, small, linear, alternate, and generally 
notched or divided at the apex. C presents a specimen 
gathered by Newman, at Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh. 
It has three dissimilar fronds, and is introduced as forming 
a connecting link between the. normal type of the common 
Rue-leaved Spleenwort and the continental specimens. The 
same botanist remarks that if a naturalist was to commence 
with the first figured and most frequent, and advance re- 
gularly through the others, he would find it difficult to 
divide the plants into two distinct species. Botanists of 
eminence, however, have thought otherwise, but the opinion 
of Linnscus may be quoted as corroborative of the one above 
mentioned. 
Sir S. Smith considers that the Rue-leaved spleenwort is 
an intermediate species between Septentrionale and Ruta 
muraria, though distinct from both. 
