Asplenium. 
115 
ASPLENIUM GERMANICUM, L. 
This rare and pretty little fern is perhaps best placed between A. septeuti ionale and A. 
Ruta-muraria ; differing from the former in having pinnate fronds, and from the latter in these 
being for the most part simply pinnate. It is confined to Europe, but is somewhat widely 
distributed in the northern and central regions of the 
continent. In England it is very rare, Cumberland being 
the only county recorded (Helvellyn and Borrowdale) by 
Mr. Watson as producing it, although Mr. Moore records it 
from Somersetshire (near Culborne), on the authority of Miss 
Payne, and also from Kyloe Crags, Northumberland. In 
Wales it is somewhat more abundant, as it is 
reported from two localities, not very far re- 
moved from each other, in the principality ; 
it grows on high rocks, near the upper end 
of the Pass of Llanberis, in Carnarvonshire, 
and also on Glyder Vawr, intermixed with A. 
scptentrionale ; and in Denbighshire it has been 
found between Llanrwst and Capel Curig. It 
has been recorded from both the Highlands 
and the Lowlands of Scotland, the localities 
for it being near Kelso and near Hassendean, 
Roxburghshire ; Arthur’s Seat, near Edin- 
burgh ; near Dunfermline, Fifeshire ; and near 
Perth and Dunkeld, Perthshire ; and also near 
Airlie Castle, Forfarshire. It is not found in 
Ireland. On the Continent we find A. gcr- 
manicum (which, by the way, is also known by the names of A. altemif olium and A. 
Breynii) occuring pretty generally in mountainous regions throughout western and central 
Europe. 
Asplenium gennanicum is an evergreen or nearly evergreen fern, with a perennial tufted 
scaly caudex, from which numerous fronds are given off. The stipites are slender, as long as 
the frond, dark-brown or black at the base, but green above ; the fronds (which are from 
two to six inches high) are very narrow, and linear in outline, with alternate ascending pinnae ; 
it is of a pale yellowish-green throughout. The lower pinnae are the largest ; they are 
notched at the apex, and have no central vein ; there are, however, from two or three to 
five or six nearly parallel longitudinal veins, on which the sori are placed. The sori are 
covered with a thin narrow entire indusium ; they are at first distinct, but ultimately become 
confluent. The alternately pinnate frond readily distinguishes A. germanicum from A. 
Ruta-muraria ; the pinnules, too, are more wedge-shaped than they are in the latter species, 
of which some have considered it a variety — a view suggested by Linnoeus. Others have 
suggested that it may be a hybrid between A. Trichomanes and A. septentr ionale, or 
between the last-named species and A. Ruta-muraria ; but this theory has not much to 
support it, especially as A. germanicum is found abundantly in many localities in the Tyrol 
and in Silesia, where none of the three species just named occurs. There is a variety 
