ss 
Euro fean Ferns. 
of the ordinary Holly; r., one of a Cuban species of Vitex ( V. ilicifolius) ; c, one of a solana- 
ceous shrub from Peru ( Dcsfontanea spinosa). It would be easy to match them exactly upon any 
good-sized Holly-tree, and there are very many shrubs, belonging to as many different 
natural orders, which resemble these in their common approximation to the Holly type 
of foliage. Our other illustration is perhaps even more striking, inasmuch as the type of 
leaf is infrequent. A is a leaf of Lourea vespertilionis, a Leguminous plant from the Indian 
Archipelago; B, a leaf of a Tropical American Passionflower ( Passijlora vespertilionis), the 
specific name in each case alluding to the curious bat’s-wing type of leaf presented by two 
plants widely separated, both botanically and geographically. 
ASFLENIUM HEMIONITIS. 
THE GREEN SPLEENWORT: ASPLENIUM VIRIDE, Hudson. 
This extremely pretty little fern has much in common with the species last described, 
so much, indeed, that it was considered as a variety of it by Linnaeus, while some recent 
authors — Mr. Bcntham for example — regard it as a form of that species. This view is, 
however, exceptional, nor do we think it is borne out by the facts of the case. The plant 
was known to the old writers, but was first described as a distinct species under the name it 
now bears by Hudson, in his “ Flora Anglica ” (1762). The green rachis of A. viride, as contrasted 
with the dark one of the next species, A. Trichomanes, is a character by which the two plants may 
at once be separated ; and there are other points of difference to which we referred when speaking 
of the English Maidenhair. The evergreen fronds arise from a tufted, somewhat creeping 
caudcx, which is sparingly covered in its upper portion with dark-brown scales. These fronds 
