RUE-LEAVED SPLEENWORT. 
263 
and for more than half its length naked. The normal form of 
the frond is triangular and pinnate, the pinnae being alternate 
and also pinnate ; the pinnules are of varied form, but mostly 
somewhat lozenge-shaped ; they are stalked, and resemble so 
many little leaves ; their exterior margin is generally serrated 
or crenate. 
The veins radiate from the stalk to the exterior margin of the 
pinnule, and to them are attached the elongate lines of capsules, 
two, three, four, and even five on a pinnule ; these are at first 
covered by an elongate, linear, white involucre, the free margin 
of which generally faces the median line of the pinnule, and is 
jagged and uneven ; this is soon pushed aside by the swelling 
capsules, turned back, and finally lost, the back of the pinnule 
becoming eventually nearly covered by a dense, dark brown 
mass of seed. 
