272 
ASPLENIACE.E. 
Asplenium septentrionale occurs most abundantly in Hungary, 
some parts of Germany, and the south of France : it is also 
recorded as an inhabitant of Lapland, Sweden, Denmark, Spain 
and Italy. In the north it seems very rare ; in the south much 
more common. I believe it has not yet been observed beyond 
the limits of Europe. 
The figures of a fern so very marked are of necessity charac- 
teristic : I scarcely know one by which the species may not in- 
stantly be known. 
The specific name of septentrionale appears to have obtained 
the concurrence of all botanists, but the genus has been a matter 
of difficulty and doubt. We find our earliest authors properly 
referring this plant to the ferns. We have seen that Gerarde 
considered it a moss ; and the opinions of himself and other au- 
thors are thus summed up by his emaculator, Johnson : — Our 
author formerly gave another figure of this plant by the name of 
Holosteum petr(Bum, which I have omitted, thinking this the 
better. Tragus,^ Lonicerus and Bauhine,f refer this to the 
femes, and the last of them calleth it Filix saxatilis corniculata. 
Pena and Lobel X made it their Holosteum alterum. Thalius 
calls it Adiantum Acrostichon seu furcatum^’’% Ray calls it 
Filix saxatilis and Linneus,1[ followed by Hudson, 
Bolton, Berkenhout, Withering, and several others, denominates 
\i Acrostichum septentrionale,h\iiY^\iherm^ observes that when 
young it is an Asplenium. Roth removes this species, together 
with Aspl. germanicum and Aspl. Jiuta-muraria^ to the genus 
Scolopendrium, which also includes Scol. vulgare and Ceterach 
officinarum of the present work. His character of this compre- 
hensive genus is given below.* ** ^ It seems scarcely my province, 
in a work like the present, to propose new generic divisions ; 
but I shall perhaps be pardoned for stating that Ruta-muraria^ 
germanicum and septentrionale ^ form a group very distinct from 
the other British species, inasmuch as their pinnules appear to 
* Tragus, Hieron, 537. f Bauh. Hist. iii. part ii. 747. X Lobel, Ic. 47. 
§ Ger. Em. 1561. || Syn. 120. U Sp. Plant. 1524. 
** Capsulae in lineolis sparsis, geminis, interveniis, disco frondis subjectis 
annulo articulato cinctae. Involucra superficiaria, sibi invicem longitudinaliter 
incumbentia, sutura longitudinali dehiscentia. — Roth, Flor. Germ. iii. 47. 
