A SPLEN1UM. 
89 
vary a good deal in length ; in well-grown specimens they are as much as ten inches long, but 
are usually shorter — from four to six inches — and narrow, about half an inch — or rather more — - 
broad, tapering towards the apex ; the stipes, which is brown at the base, though green in its upper 
portion, is about a third of the length of the frond. The pinnae are of a pale delicate green, 
very different from those of A. 
express on paper ; they 
Trichomanes, although the difference is one not easy to 
are less numerous than in the species just named, somewhat 
square in outline, with a wedge-shaped base, 
and waved or sometimes slightly cut at the 
margin ; they are usually alternate, and, like 
those of A. Trichomanes , attached to the rachis 
only by their short stalks. There is a good 
deal of variation in their shape, as the accom- 
panying figures will show. Mr. Newman finds 
in their venation a character which distinguishes 
the plant from the English Maidenhair ; he 
says : — “ The lateral veins are either simple or 
forked ; they bear a long linear mass of seeds, 
and when forked the mass is most [almost ?] 
invariably situated before the fork ; this appears 
to me a very excellent distinguishing character, 
and one by which this species may readily be 
known.” The fructification is principally situ- 
ated on the upper part of the frond ; the sori 
are linear and at first distinct, and covered with 
a white entire or toothed indusium ; this dis- 
appears when the spores are ripe, and the 
masses become of a bright brown, and join 
one another, covering the centre and the greater 
part of each pinna. 
The Green Spleenwort is not a variable 
species. Mr. Moore names four varieties, which 
seem very slight ones, depending only upon 
the subdivisions of the frond or the pinnae, 
the names of which — multifidum , bipinnatum , 
incisum, and acutifolium — show sufficiently 
their respective peculiarities. The multifid or branched form is the only one worthy of special 
mention ; it is said to be very frequent in some places, and is figured by Gerard as “ Tricho- 
manes fcemina, the Female English Maidenhaire,” while it was described by Linnaeus as a 
branched form of English Maidenhair (A. Trichomanes ramosum). We reproduce the figure 
given by Gerard, which will give a good idea of this form of the plant. 
The geographical distribution of the Green Spleenwort, both in the British Islands and 
elsewhere, is much more restricted than that of A. Trichomanes. In England it is entirely 
absent from the southern counties, although it has been recorded from Surrey, Sussex, and 
Middlesex, but only in situations where it has probably been introduced ; Glamorgan, Monmouth, 
and Worcester (where it is supposed to be extinct) are its southern limits, nor does it appear 
on the eastern side of England below York. It seems to be rather a frequent Welsh plant, as, 
17 
