A SPLEN1UM. 
105 
ASPLENIUM LANCEOLATUM, Hudson. 
This is a very pretty and uncommon fern of the Atlantic type of distribution, and 
thus having a somewhat restricted geographical range. In England we find it for the most 
part confined to the west side of the island, although it is recorded for Kent and Sussex. 
In Cornwall and Devonshire it occurs in numerous localities; in the former county it is 
found at (amongst other places) St. Michael’s Mount, the Land’s End, Penzance, and Helston, 
and at Hot-point, where it grows to a large size, some of the fronds being eighteen inches 
long. In Devonshire it occurs in numerous localities ; about Plymouth it is usually a semi- 
moorland plant, or grows in places not far from the tidal waters. Somersetshire and 
Gloucestershire also produce it ; and it is found more or less plentifully in some of the 
Welsh counties. In Merionethshire it is, or was until recently, very abundant, especially near 
Barmouth, where it has been much diminished of late years by the depredations of tourists. 
It is not found in Scotland ; in Ireland it occurs very locally, being only recorded for the 
county Cork, near Kinsale and Cahirciveen. 
If we cross to the European continent, and take the Channel Islands in our way, we are 
pretty sure to find A. lanceolatum in any of the islands, not only in wet and shady, but also 
in dry and exposed situations. Here, as elsewhere, it has a marked partiality for the sea air. 
It grows in Turkey and Greece, being represented here by the variety obovatum , of which 
we shall speak hereafter. I11 the Mediterranean islands, as well as in the countries bordering 
upon the sea, it is plentiful ; it grows in Spain and Portugal, specimens from the latter 
country measuring about a foot in length. It is also represented in Germany, Belgium, and 
Switzerland, as well as in two or three parts of France. In the islands of Madeira and the 
Azores it is plentiful, and is found on the African continent, at Algiers and Tangiers. 
The merit of having established this fern as a distinct species belongs to our countryman 
William Hudson, who named and defined it specifically in the second edition of his “ Flora 
Anglica ” (1798). It had been known to previous authors, but had always been looked upon 
as a variety of A. Adiantum-nigrum, with which it is even now not unfrequently confused. 
Its nearest relation among British ferns is certainly the species just named ; Mr. Moore, 
however, thus sums up the differences between them. He says that A. lanceolatum may be 
known — “(1) by its lanceolate, not deltoid, outline; (2) by the presence of hair-scales on its 
principal and partial rachides ; (3) by the form of the sorus, which is oblong, not linear: the 
sori in this species being nearly represented in appearance by the upper half of those of 
Adiantum-nigrum ; and (4) by the position of the sorus, which is in this species produced 
above, and in Adiantum-nigrum below, the fork of the veins; in the latter, consequently, 
the sori are near the costa, and central with respect to the pinnules, whilst in lanceolatum 
they are submarginal. The texture also is thinner, and the pinnules are shorter, and more 
equable in size.”* There are other characters which are perhaps a little difficult to define 
upon paper, although they are readily recognisable when the plant is seen. The shade oi 
green, which is very striking and handsome, is very distinct from that of A. Adiantum- 
nigrum. Besides the generally much more divided pinnae of A. Adiantum-nigrum, the lower 
pairs should be specially noticed ; these are broad and again divided, and are always the 
largest, but this is not the case in A. lanceolatum, in which, indeed, the lowest pair of pinnae 
are often shorter than the ones just above them. 
The plant now under consideration sends up from a short, thick, scaly caudex a large 
19 
* “Nature-printed British Ferns,” vol. ii., p. 69 (18 59). 
