THE SEA SPLEENWORT 
3Sl 
times so firmly imbedded are its somewhat thick and fleshy root- 
lets in the stone that hours may he occupied with hammer and 
chisel in the attempt to get out rootstock and rootlets un- 
injured. At other times, however, such labour is un- 
necessary, and a few moments will suffice to get out the prize 
from the crumbling side of a damp and soft-veined rock. 
The most luxuriant specimens, too, of the Sea Spleenwort are 
not unfrequently found growing, not in, but upon the surface 
of the rock in dripping sea caves— the fine rootlets clinging 
to the damp and porous stone, and spreading like a network 
over it. Such specimens are the best to secure for artificial 
cultivation. 
Description. — In proportion to the size of Asplenium 
mariniun, its rootstock is unusually stout. Its rootlets are 
abundant, somewhat thick and fleshy, and of a very absorbent 
nature. The crown is densely covered with blackish-coloured 
scales. The fronds are frequently found, even in mature 
plants, not more than two or three inches in height, reaching 
an average perhaps of six inches. But in dripping sea caves 
on some parts of our own coasts, plants may be found with 
fronds eighteen inches long, and abroad, specimens have been 
collected from plants growing under circumstances very con- 
genial to their development, as much as three feet in length. 
The stipes is rarely more than a third of the length of the 
entire frond, and is sometimes less than that. In colour, it 
is a shining dark purple, and the rachis through the greater 
part of its length is sometimes of the same colour, being 
generally green, however, towards the top. The fronds grow 
from the rootstock in tufts. In form they are somewhat 
broadly — regard being had to their length — lance-shaped, 
tapering somewhat bluntly to the apex, broadest about the 
centre and tapering slightly to the base. The pinnae, which 
are variously shaped, but mostly ear- shaped, or wing-shaped, 
are attached to the rachis — often in pairs on opposite sides of 
