Asplenium . ] 
FERNS. 
47 
opposite, smooth, oblong, obtuse, pinnate, except the lower pair, 
which are doubly pinnate. Pinnules ovate, pointed, convex, deeply 
but irregularly serrated and spinulose, petioled. their midribs straight. 
Leaf-stalk long, covered with brown scales, with a blackish middle, 
Sori all the summer, distinct. Indusia soon becoming obliterated, 
round, with a lateral notch. 
A very variable plant, altered much by cultivation and circumstances ; thus 
if it grow in a situation which is wet in the spring and dried up in the summer, 
as on the margin of a pond, it will become var. [3, very dark, large, and quite 
drooping. Continued wet will elongate the leaf and separate the pinme and 
pinnules as in var. y. A young plant is only twice pinnate and flat. A dry' and 
rocky, or a confined situation will render the leaf small and less divided, the 
pinnules blunt, deflexed, and drooping : thus starved it becomes the Aspidium 
dumetorum of Smith (var. 8). I know not the nature of the habitats in which 
the recurved var. (e) of Bree grows. [It is said to grow both in dry and wet 
shady places, preferring moisture. But all the recorded localities are in damp 
climates. — Ed.] The varieties recurvum and dumetorum are, I believe, not altered 
by cultivation, and Sir J. E. Smith implies, in his description of the latter, 
that its spores produce the same variety. 
a ( dilatatum ). Frond sub-tripinnate, triangular, ovate. Pinnules petioled. 
f3 ( ). Frond tripinnate, deflexed, triangular. Pinnules convex. 
y ( ). Frond tripinnate, triangular, elongated. Pinnules somewhat 
decurrent, and distant from each other. 
8 ( dumetorum ), Frond small, triangular, drooping. Pinnules blunt. 
£ {recurvum, Bree). Frond small. Pinnules concave, and dark green. 
Newm. p. 61. Lastraea Foenisecii, Bab. Lophodium 
Foenisecii, Newm. 1854. 
Sit. and Hab. — u, (3, y : Very common in damp hedgerows and swampy 
woods, ascending to an elevation of 1000 yards in many parts of the High- 
lands, and probably even to 1200 yards on the Cairngorum range, Mr. II. C. 
Watson. — 8 : Derbyshire (rare), Mr. J. E. Bowman and Dr. Howitt Common 
about Settle, Yorks., Mr. J. Tatham. Black Rock, Cromford, Derb., G. F. 
Ben-na-Bourd, Aberdeensh., Mr. H. C. Watson. Powerscourt Waterfall, and 
side of Djouce Mountain, Ireland (abundant), Mr. Mackay. — £ : Plentiful about 
Penzance, Cornwall, Rev. W. Bree. Western counties of England and in Ireland. 
Geo.— -Common tliroughout Europe, and from Pennsylvania to Virginia. 
£ : Plentiful in Madeira and the Azores. 
ASPLENIUM, Linn. SPLEENWORT. 
{Ao7r\r)vov, a medicine to cure disorders of the spleen, from a and 
A, part of the leaf of Asplenium marinum. One pinnule, showing the veins 
and origin of the fruit, the others the sori in different states. B, part of a 
