54 
FERNS. 
[Asplenium. 
Sit. — On rocks, &c., in the south of England, and in Wales. 
Hab. — On the walls of the Church of St. Sancret, near the -Land’s End, 
Cornwall, Jones’s Tour. Abundant around Penzance and St. Ives, Mr. H. C. 
Watson. Scilly Islands, Mr. TV. C. Trevelyan. Sussex, Mr. Borrer. High 
rocks, near Tunbridge Wells (1835), Mr. W. Pamplin. Near Barmouth (plenti- 
ful), Mr. J. E. Bowman and Mr. W. Wilson. 
Geo. — Azores, Bohemia, Hungary, France. 
9. — ASPLENIUM ADIANTUM NIGRUM. 
BLACK MAIDEN-HAIR. SHINING SPLEENWORT. 
(Plate V, fig. 3.) 
Ciia. — Leaf triangular, tripinnate. Pinnae elongate-triangular, 
alternate. Pinnules lanceolate, inciso-serrate, blunt. Leaf-stalk 
winged, black. 
Syn. — Asplenium Adiantum nigrum, Linn., Willd., Smith, llook., Mack., Bolt., 
Roth., Huds., With., Galp., Bernh., Light/. — Asplenium lucidum, Gray, 
Salisb. — Black spleenwort, Newm. 
Fig. — E. B. 1950. — Flo. Dan. 250. — Bolt. 17. — Ger. 1137. — Newm. p. 225 
(1854). 
Des. — Leaf tripinnate, ovate or triangular, 4 to 8 inches high, 
dark green, rigid, and erect. Leaf-stalk black, smooth, slightly- 
winged, clothed with pinnae only on the upper half. Pinnae alternate, 
those only on the lower part twice pinnate, the lowermost the 
largest. Pinnules deeply cleft, tapering at their base, sharply 
serrated at and near the top. Sori linear at first, oblong at last, 
covering the whole under surface of the frond. 
a. Leaves rigid, tripinnate only at the lower part. ( The common plant.) 
(3. Leaves delicate, tripinnate throughout, alternate, segments linear, very acute. 
Asplenium aeutum, Nmvm. fig. p. 231 (1854). Asplenium Adiantum 
nigrum, var. Virgilii, Bory. 
Sir J. E. Smith, in conformity with the old authors, makes another variety, 
differing only from the common plant in having long fronds and distant pinna? ; 
but I leave any one to say if it be anything more than a drawn-up plant of the 
common species, found as it was, solitary, in a dark cave. 
Hab. — a: Common through the United Kingdom, on walls, rocks, &c. I 
have habitats from the Orkney Islands, and from those in the English Channel, 
from the eastern as well as from the western counties, from Wales, Scotland, 
and Ireland. Dr. Murray writes me, “ not common in the north of Scotland.” 
— /3 : Limestone rocks at Mucruss, Killarney, Mr. Mackay, Miss Hutchins, and 
Dr. Taylor. Mount Gahir-Cource, six miles from Tralee, Mr. W. Andrews. 
Geo. — Italy, France, Germany, Madeira, and high mountains of Carolina. 
