-Asplexium. 
1 °7 
herbage with which the hedge-banks are clothed. In its typical form it is a fern with tufted, 
short, stout, and scaly caudex, from which spring numerous fronds ; the stipes, which is from six 
to nine inches in length (about as long as 
the leafy part of the frond), is of a dark 
shining brown hue, darker at the base, 
and smooth ; the fronds are from half a 
foot to a foot long, and about half as 
broad ; they are bipinnate or tripinnate, 
of elongated triangular outline, and with 
numerous pinnae, all of which are much 
divided into narrow segments ; the pinnae 
are also triangular in outline, the two 
lowest, which are nearly opposite, are 
longer than the rest, and often pinnate 
or pinnatifid ; the upper portion of the 
frond tapers into an elongated point. 
The sori are borne upon the veins of the pinnules 
in the manner shown in the figure ; in their young 
state these are covered by a narrow white involucre, 
which is attached to the side of the lateral veins, 
opening towards the centre of the pinnule. As 
they develope, the indusium is pushed on one side, 
and at length disappears ; and the sori become 
merged into a confused dark-brown mass, which 
covers the back of the entire frond. 
The Black Maidenhair Spleenwort was known to 
our older writers. Gerard gives a fairly good figure 
of the plant under the name of “ the male blacke 
feme, Onopteris major.” He says it “ is called of 
divers of the later Herbarists Dryopteris nigra , or 
Blacke Oke feme, of the likenes that it hath with 
Dryopteris, which we have called in English Oke 
Feme, or Mosse Feme : of others Adiantum nigrum, 
or blacke Maidenshaire.” He adds that it “ is used 
of divers unlearned apothecaries for Adiantum, or 
Maidenhaire of Fumbardie, but these men do erre 
in doing so.” Its medicinal properties, indeed, are 
so slight as to have almost fallen out of knowledge ; 
but at one time they must have received some re- 
cognition, as Ray* mentions its efficacy in various 
disorders, such as coughs, asthma, and obstructions 
of different kinds, while he cites Matthiolus as 
testifying to its value as a vermifuge; Hoffmann 
prescribed its employment in scorbutic affections. In France an infusion of the fronds is 
sometimes employed as a diuretic. 
FROND OF ASrLENIUM ADIANTUM-NIGR JM. 
* “Synopsis Stirpium ” (3rd edition), p. 127 (1724). 
