THE SPLEENWORTS. 
273 
of the Common Maidenhair Spleenwort may be 
seen even in the heart of towns, — for it will grow 
on houses and garden walls. Though a rock- 
loving fern, it will also oftentimes grow with 
great luxuriance on the soft soil of a sloping 
hedge-bank. 
Asple7iium trichomanes is evergreen and hardy, 
enduring bravely through the winter, and sturdily 
retaining its little bristling stalks, even when 
their crops of leaves have gone. It is a delightful 
occupant of the open-air rockery ; but it will 
grow readily and well in pots. Put it in a high 
and shady cleft of your rockery — give it leaf- 
mould, and sand, and broken pieces of soft brick 
or stone — and it will always be refreshing and 
delightful. 
8. THE SEA SPLEENWORT. 
Asplenium marinum. 
The habitats of the Sea Spleenwort are sea 
rocks and dripping sea caves. The instances 
are very few indeed in which it has been 
18 
