go 
European Ferns. 
besides the counties already named, it is recorded for Brecknockshire, Merionethshire (Cader 
Idris), Denbighshire (near Llangollen), and Carnarvonshire (Llyn y Cwm, Twll du, etc.) ; but 
in many of these localities it is found very sparingly, the collecting of rare ferns by guides for 
sale to tourists having tended greatly to its reduction. The other English counties producing this 
little fern are Stafford, Derby, York, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, and Northumber- 
land ; it is also recorded from Cheshire and South Lancashire, but its occurrence in these 
counties requires confirmation. In Scotland it is not unfrequent, extending as far as Shetland. 
In Ireland, too, it is not a very rare, although a local, plant ; it is absent from the north-east 
corner, and, indeed, from the whole eastern side of the island, but is frequent along the west 
and toward the centre, extending from Killarney up to Donegal. On the continent of 
Europe the Green Spleenwort is found in Lapland, Einmark, and northern Russia ; it extends, 
indeed, from the Arctic regions to the Pyrenees, growing for the most part in mountainous 
or subalpine regions, and most frequently met with upon calcareous rocks. Sweden, Norway, 
Germany, Bohemia, E ranee, Italy, Greece, and Spain all produce this pretty little plant. In 
Spain it ascends to an elevation of nearly ten thousand feet, in the Sierra Nevada. In the 
south of France, at Grasse, it grows at an altitude only slightly above the sea-level. In 
Asia it occurs in northern India, in the Himalayas and Kumaon — in the latter locality at 
an elevation of ten thousand feet — and also in eastern Siberia. It is entirely absent from 
Africa and its islands, and from Australia ; but it is found in the New World, in Greenland, 
Newfoundland, and the island of Sitka (a very small form) ; and, again, in California, on 
moist, shady rocks in the Rocky Mountains ; in the United States, however, it does not put 
in an appearance. There are one or two allied American species which differ from A. viride 
especially in their viviparous habit ; one of these is A. projection , a Peruvian fern, which 
bears young plants at the end of the fronds, and the rachis of which takes root at intervals ; 
the other, A. fragile , is a native of the Andes. Of this Sir William Hooker observes : — 
“ Were it not for the curious little viviparous bulbilli seen upon the stipes, it would be 
difficult to say in what respect this species differs from A. viride, of the European Alps ; 
and it is possible that this peculiarity may originate in its elevated locality, which is no doubt 
very considerable at all times on the Andes of Columbia.”* 
* leones Plantarum,” tab. 932. 
