HEATH’S FERN PORTFOLIO. 
BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 
A splenmm adiant^Lm-nigr^im. 
N o FERN adds a greater degree of beauty and gracefulness to its surroundings 
than THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT — Asplenium 
adianhcm-itigrum — and few plants equal it in its rich and glossy loveliness. Suiting 
its form, its size, and the extent of its attractions to the character of its sur- 
roundings, it dwindles, on dry, sunny, exposed situations on rocks or walls, to a tiny 
thing, an inch, it may be, in length. Where moist seams of earth and shady corners offer 
it a home it is of larger growth, whilst in such congenial spots under the shelter of over- 
hanging bushes it will become developed till its fronds reach a length, stem and leafy part 
together, of two feet. Yet its common length is no more than six or nine inches. From 
a dark, tufted, scaly rootstock the fronds grow somewhat sparingly with a large proportionate 
length of stipes^ — ^or leaf stalk, as it may be called. The stipes is purplish near the base, and 
greener higher up towards the leafy part, though sometimes remaining purple, becoming green 
as it merges into the rachis, or main stem of the leafy part. The leafy part is triangular in 
form, and each of the alternately placed pinncB, or second divisions of the frond, is more or less 
triangular. The pinnules, or second divisions of the leafy parts, are various in form but are 
mostly somewhat pyramidal on a small scale, and they, in turn, are divided into deeply cut 
fringed or indented lobes — the ultimate divisions of the frond. The sori, or collections of spore * 
cases on the undersides of the fronds, are arranged in oblique lines, and though distinct when 
young and green, afterwards become confluent, i.e.^ run into each other, as they ripen into 
the dark, rich-brown masses, which, sometimes nearly covering the undersides of the fronds, 
finely contrast with the warm hue of the stem, and the sheen of the verdant and glossy 
leafy parts. 
Habitats. — Walls, rocks, ruins, bridge arches, garden enclosures and house walls, and 
stony banks of all kinds, becoming luxuriant and especially large and beautiful where leaf mould 
has gathered into the crevices it loves. 
Distribution. — Abyssinia, Afghanistan, Algiers, Arabia, Armenia, Austria, Azores, 
Balearic Islands, Belgium, British Islands, Cape of Good Hope, Croatia, Cape de Verd Islands, 
Corsica, Cyprus, Dalmatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Java, Madeira, 
Natal, Porto Rico, Portugal, Russia, Sandwich Isles, Scandinavia, Sicily, Simla, Spain, Switzer- 
land, Syria, Teneriffe, Transylvania, Turkey, and Virginia. 
