Asplenium. 
07 
ASPLENIUM HEUFFLERI, Reichardt. 
This is a rare and little-known fern, which, although taking rank as a species in the 
“Synopsis Filicum,” is considered by Milde as “sine ullo dubio” a hybrid between A. Tricho- 
mafies and A. germanicum, agreeing with the former in size and habit, and with the latter in 
the wingless rachis and the toothing of the pinnae. It has densely-tufted fronds, the dark 
slender stipes of which is two or three inches long ; the fronds themselves are but one or two 
inches in length, and consist of three or four pairs of opposite distant pinnae, the lowest of 
which is about a quarter of an inch in length and breadth ; the pinnae are toothed or 
lobed, and uniformly narrowed into a distinct petiole. A. Heuffleri is a native of the Tyrol, 
between Vilpian and Molten, and also occurs at Eichhorn, in Moravia ; it is a plant of compara- 
tively recent detection, as it was not described until 1859. 
PETRARCH’S SPLEENWORT : ASPLENIUM PETRARCHAN, DC. 
This extremely pretty little species is one of the rarest of European ferns. It is a small 
plant, with a thick, somewhat creeping stem, from which spring very numerous pinnate fronds 
from two to three inches long, having dark shining stipites from one to three inches in length ; 
the black line extends to the rachis, which, however, becomes greenish in its upper portion, and 
is covered throughout with stalked glands. The pinnae are nearly opposite, and few in number 
— from seven to fourteen pairs ; they are lobed or pinnatifid with entire lobes, firm and 
membranaceous, obtuse at the apex, half an inch or less long, and less than half of that 
measurement in breadth ; the sori are from four to six in number, becoming confluent when 
fully developed. Although from the description it might be supposed that this plant is very similar 
to A. Trichomancs and A. viride , it is really very distinct from both, even in general appearance; 
in some specimens, indeed, it reminds one more of a Woodsia in its aspect. The whole 
plant is much smaller, and the pinnae are longer in proportion, and lobed or pinnatifid in a 
manner quite different from the cutting of those in the species named ; and it differs more 
conspicuously still in the stalked glands with which the whole plant is clothed, to such a degree 
as to give it a hoary appearance.* 
This is one of the few ferns almost peculiar to Europe, and even on that continent its 
range is extremely restricted. It has been recorded as a native of the British Islands ; Milde 
records “ Hibernia ” among its localities without any indication of doubt, and it is also included 
in Newman’s “ History of British Ferns ”+ as a bond fide Irish plant. In spite of this testimony, 
however, Petrarch’s FernJ is not regarded as possessing sufficient claims to be included among 
the natives of the British Islands ; the authors of the “ Cybele Hibernica ” suspect a form of 
A. Tricliomanes was mistaken for it. 
Petrarch’s Fern is found upon dry chalky rocks, especially near the sea, in the Mediterranean 
regions — in the South of France, at Montpellier and Toulon, besides at Vaucluse, as mentioned 
below ; at Mentone and Nice, at Palermo in Sicily, and near Malaga and in Murcia in Spain ; 
it has also been recorded from Greece. Its only extra-European localities are in Algeria, where 
it has been met with by two collectors. 
* Hooker and Greville’s “ leones Filicum,” t. clii., where is a good coloured figure of the plant. 
t Fifth (people’s) edition, pp. 146—8. 
J The specific name has reference to the immortal Italian poet, to whom the locality where this little 
fern was first found — Vaucluse — was especially endeared by association, as we learn from his well-known ode. 
18 
