THE SCALY SPLEENWORT 
385 
Some of the finest specimens are found growing on w r alls under 
the shelter of overhanging trees, at places where the mortar 
has become old and crumbled, and leaf-mould has accumulated 
by the perpetual droppings of leaves. O11 house and garden 
walls, on churches, on bridge arches, and indeed wherever in 
a moist Fern country the mortared crevices of stony structures 
begin to open for the reception of vegetable accumulations, 
the Scaly Spleenwort will often be found. 
Description. — The rootstock of Axplenium ceterach is 
tufted and scaly, and its fibrous rootlets are very abundant, 
sometimes in congenial situations under the sheltered coping- 
stones of old walls, forming dense masses. On the open side 
of a wall or rock fully developed fronds of this Fern may 
often be found not more than an inch or two in leno-th. 
O 1 
and the length will be found to vary from that limit up to as 
much as eight inches, according to the more or less congenial 
situation of the plant. The fronds which are narrow and 
lance- shaped, broadest about the centre and tapering towards 
the base and to a blunt point at the apex are mostly pinna- 
tifid, the margin on each side of the mid-rib being deeply 
cleft or scalloped into deep, wide, and rounded serratures, the 
marginal cutting-in being so regularly arranged that the 
cone-shaped pinnae or leafy projections on each side of the 
mid-rib present the appearance of a waved or undulated 
■ series, the base of each pinna being exactly opposite the 
indentation on the other side of the rachis. From this it 
will be recognized that the pinnae are placed in regular 
alternation on each side of the mid-rib. Sometimes in highly 
developed specimens the low r er portion of the frond is pinnate* 
the indentation reaching quite down to the rachis, wdiich is 
then bared of any leafy expansion. The entire under side of 
the frond — the back of the rachis as well as the backs of the 
pinnm — is densely clothed with light rust-coloured scales, 
which conceal from view both the leafy surfaces of the pinna; 
a a 
