34 
THE FORKED SPLEEN WORT. 
Asplenium septentrionale. 
Plate 6, Fig. IT, Page '235. 
Omi native Spleenworts form an extremely beautiful and 
interesting group of evergreen Ferns. They are essentially 
rock-loving species, and are L mostly small in size. The 
common name of Spleenwort, which is a rendering of the 
botanical generic name of Asplenium, derived from the Greek 
atplenov, has been given to this group of Ferns on account 
of a belief — largely held by ancient herbalists, and shared by 
our old botanical writers — that the Ferns forming the group 
possess the power of curing diseases of the spleen. Botani- 
cally considered the genus Asplenium — which includes ten 
species which are inhabitants of the British Islands — consists 
of Ferns whose spore cases, borne on the backs of the fronds 
in elongated clusters, are covered by indusia of the same 
shape as the clusters and attached to the frond by that side 
which is towards the margins of the pinnules or pinme — 
whichever it may be — bearing them. Of the reason for the 
choice of the specific name — septentrionale, ‘northern,’ — of 
the present species there appears to be no better explanation 
than that the Fern is chiefly an inhabitant of the northern 
parts of Britain. It grows in the moist crevices of rocks 
and walls, often being hid away underneath projecting 
stony spurs or completely enveloped — rootstock and fronds — 
