THE SPLEENWORTS. 
265 
leaf-mould. It will grow readily in pots, but must 
be planted amongst the stones in which it de- 
lights. 
5. THE LANCEOLATE SPLEEN WORT. 
Asplenium lanceolatum . 
There is so much similarity between the 
Lanceolate and the Black Maidenhair Spleen- 
wort, that fern-hunters are in danger oftentimes 
of mistaking the one for the other. But there 
is one mark by which the two ferns can be un- 
mistakably distinguished from each other. In 
the Black Maidenhair the frond is broadest at 
its base, and tapers upwards gradually to its 
point ; it is, in fact, distinctly triangular. In 
Lanceolatum , on the contrary, the frond is 
broadest about the centre of its leafy part ; and 
from thence it tapers in both directions to its tip 
and to its base. In other respects the description 
of the fronds of Adiantum nigrum will very nearly 
apply to those of Lanceolatum y with this general 
difference, that the widest branches of the fronds of 
