IX ASPLFNIUM. 
171 
ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONAI.E, Hull : Swartz : Sm. En?. Fl iv 
295 . Eiifr. Bot. t 1017 : Hook and Arn, Fl. 573 : Bab Man. 414 
Florigr. Brit, iv., 74: Newm. 269: Franc. 44. AMESIUM SEPTEN- 
TKIONALE, Newman Brit. F. 10; App. vii. ACROPTERIS SEPTEN- 
TRIONALIS, Link. ACKOSTICHUM sEPTENTBiONAtE, Linnajus. 
SCOLOPENDRIUM SEPTENTBIONAI.E, Kotll. PTERIS 8EPTENTRIO- 
NAUS, Smith. 
The Forked Spleen- 
wort has a tufted cau- 
dex, often forming a 
comparatively large 
mass, and producing 
slender branched fibres 
which serve to fix it to 
the rocks on which it 
grows. The fronds 
which are terminal and 
adherent to the caudex 
are small and slender, 
often very numerous, 
from two to four inches 
long, dull green, except 
quite at the base of the 
stipes, which is dark 
brown-purple. Their 
[Asplemuin septentrionale.] usua i outline is narrow 
elongate-lanceolate from the partial spreading of the 
lateral segments, gradually diminishing downwards into 
the smooth stipes, which is about equal to the frond 
in length. The frond itself, in vigorous specimens, is 
cleft into two or three narrow segments : sometimes 
deeply cleft to the very rachis, the lobes narrowing 
downwards, and often having a bifid apex, and one 
or two short lateral sharp-pointed or bifid teeth ; some- 
times less divided, the lateral divisions merely forming 
enlarged bifid teeth ; and sometimes still more re- 
duced into mere teeth, the apex of the frond length- 
ened, but slender and curved The lateral lobes, 
