THE SPLEENWORTS. 
261 
easy of cultivation. It should be planted between 
fragments of stone in such a manner as to imitate, 
as nearly as possible, its natural conditions; and 
for soil it must have sandy leaf-mould and old 
pieces of mortar. 
4. THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 
Asplenium adiantum nigrum. 
The Black Maidenhair is, perhaps, the most 
elegant of the Spleenworts, chiefly on account 
of the elaborate and beautiful manner in which 
its fronds are divided. It grows from a very 
tufted root-stock, and throws up thick clusters of 
fronds, which vary considerably in height. Some- 
times, when growing on walls in somewhat dry 
and exposed situations, it may be found no more 
than an inch or two or three inches high. But 
when it is in situations more congenial to it, and 
under conditions such as will be presently de- 
scribed, it attains a height of from eighteen inches 
to two feet, and possesses an elegance almost 
