284 
ASPLENIACEiE. 
The root is fibrous, black, and rather tender, the rhizoma 
black, scaly and tufted ; the fronds appear in May and June, 
arrive at maturity in August, and remain green through the win- 
ter: they are fertile only. The stem is naked for about a third 
of its length : half the naked portion is black or purplish ; the 
remainder to the apex of the frond is of a vivid green : the frond 
is narrow, long, linear, and simply pinnate ; the pinnae are not 
so numerous as in Trichomanes, they are quadrate, but without 
angles, and are more or less crenate at the margin ; they are for 
the most part placed alternately, and are generally very distinct 
and distant, but I have seen them crowded, as, for instance, in 
the plants from Ham-bridge : they are attached to the rachis by 
their stalks only. The lateral veins are either simple or forked; 
they bear a long, linear cluster of capsules, and when forked, 
the division almost invariably takes place beyond the capsules : 
this appears to me a very excellent diagnostic, and one by 
which this species may readily be known from Trichomanes : 
some of the veins reach the margin of the pinna. The capsules 
are at first covered by a long white involucre, which soon dis- 
appears, and they become a bright ferruginous confluent mass, 
occupying the middle of the pinna, and concealing its midvein. 
The clusters, before their union, are usually six in number. 
Mr. Gibson of Hebden-bridge has specimens of this plant 
which have the pinnae very long and pointed : I am indebted to 
Mr. Gibson for a sight of this variety, which he proposes to call 
acutifolium. 
There are good figures of this fern in Sowerby’s ‘English Bo- 
tany,’^' and in Schkuhr.f 
We are indebted to our countryman Hudson for first describ- 
ing this fern with a specific name.J It is described by Llwyd 
as a species in Ray’s Synopsis, under the name of Trichomanes 
ramosum ; § but Linneus, notwithstanding its diagnostics are 
there clearly pointed out, makes it a variety of Aspl. Trichoma- 
nes, under the name of Asplenium Trichomanes ramosum. || 
Hudson’s name has been adopted by all subsequent authors. 
* Eng. Bot. 2257. f Schkuhr, tab. 73. 
X Asplenium viride frond ib us pinnatis : pinnis subrotundis crenatis basi 
Iruncatis. — Flora Anglica, ii. 453. 
§Syn. 119. 
II Sp. Plant. 1541. 
