Asplenium. 
113 
which arise from a short tufted stem, and are often very numerous, vary from an inch, or 
even less, to six inches in length ; they are smooth throughout, as is also the stipes, which 
is of about the same length, and have often a peculiar glossy appearance due to the dull, 
almost glaucous shade of green which they sometimes assume. In a young state these fronds 
are nearly or quite simple, passing afterwards 
through a trifoliate to a twice or thrice pinnate 
form, with wedge-shaped pinnules, which are some- 
times acute at the apex, but more frequently 
rounded. When growing in the cracks and crevices 
of walls, the Wall Rue is usually extremely 
difficult to extricate, as the caudex can hardly be 
got out entire, and the fronds are very small, and 
usually separated from the stem in the attempts 
necessary to obtain the plant. Sometimes the fern 
is so extremely small that it is only detected after 
careful observation ; we have met with such plants 
on a wall in a Buckinghamshire locality, which also 
produced minute plants of the Scaly Spleenwort 
( Ceterach officinarum). There is no distinct central vein to be observed in the pinnules, the 
venation consisting of a series of forked veins springing from the base of the pinnule, and 
extending to its margin. To the inner side of the veins are attached the narrow sori, which 
are at first covered by a white involucre : this disappears when the fructification is ripe, being 
pushed aside, and shrivelling up when its work of protection has been accomplished. The sori 
are at first distinct, but as they grow older and develope they become confluent, so that the 
back of the pinnules is often almost entirely and thickly covered with the dark-brown spores. 
The accompanying cut is from Deakin’s “ Florigraphia Britannica,” and shows some variations 
in the form of the fronds and pinnules. 
THE FORKED SPLEENWORT: ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE, L. 
We are so accustomed to look upon a fern as synonymous with all that is pretty and 
graceful that when we come across a member of the family which has not these qualities, we 
are surprised and half-inclined to resent the appearance of an ugly interloper in our select 
parterre. Not that the Forked Spleenwort can fairly be called ugly ; its defects are of the 
negative kind, and consist rather in the absence of beauty than in the presence of anything 
unsightly; but it must be confessed that it is not at all an attractive plant. It has, however, 
one qualification for admiration which must not be overlooked — that of rarity, for it is cer- 
tainly an uncommon plant in Britain, and does not occur at all in Ireland. Gerard duly 
figures the Forked Spleenwort as a British plant, although he places it among mosses : his 
description, though not very detailed, is good as far as it goes. He tells us that it is 
found “ upon the tops of our most barren mountains, but especially where seacoles are accus- 
tomed to be digged, stone to make iron of, and also where oare is gotten for tinne and lead ; 
it riseth foorth of the ground with many bare and naked branches, dividing themselves at the 
top into sundrie knags, like the forked homes of a deere, every part whereof is of an over- 
worne whitish colour.” Gerard’s figure is not amiss ; but his editor, Johnson, in the later 
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