64 ASPLKXIUM VIR1DB. 
- ASPLE'NIUM VI'RIDE. ;'.;.- 
THIS is called, in English, the Green Spleenwort, Green- 
ribbed Spleenwort, and Green Maidenhair Spleenwort, 
and, indeed, it is its greenness, lighter and brighter in 
the leafits, and entirely so in the stalk, which chiefly 
distinguishes it from Asplenium trichomanes. 
The main root is dark chesnut-coloured, and some 
what more carrot-shaped than that of A. trichomanes , 
the fibrous roots are also less numerous than in that 
species. The top of the root is tufted, and from the 
tuft arise the fronds. Of these the stalks are rather 
more upright, and more free from leafits at the bottom 
than in A. trichomanes; this bottom part is dark 
chesnut-coloured, but the whole of the upper part is 
green, and this is the chief permanent character dis- 
tinguishing it from A. trichomanes, The stalk is smooth, 
the lower third without leafits, and the whole varying 
between about three and ten inches in height. The 
greater stature being found in specimens growing in 
moist, sheltered situations. The end of the frond is 
sometimes divided into two or three branches. The 
leafits vary much in form, being mostly rbomboidal, but 
sometimes egg-shaped, and at others spear-head shaped, 
usually tapering towards their sta'k, which is very short 
and slender, not always alternate, and not so close 
together, nor blunt-ended, as in A. trichomanes, but 
their upper edges are much more scolloped than in that 
species. The mid-vein produces side-veins, usually 
