THE GREEN SPLEENWORT. 
Asplenium viride.* — Hudson. 
The Green Spleenwort has so close a resemblance to 
the Common Maiden-hair as to be often mistaken for 
it by hasty observers. It is distinguished by its green 
compressed rachis (that of A. Trichomanes being dark 
brown or black), by its persistent pinnae (deciduous in 
A. Trichomanes ), by the more central situation of its 
sori, which are placed rather below than above the 
vein-fork, and by being always of a much paler green 
and of a more delicate herbaceous appearance. It is 
an evergreen tufted species, with bright pale green 
fronds, narrow, linear, simply pinnate, from two to 
eight inches long, supported by a short stipes, dark at 
the very base, but else green, the rachis all green. 
The pinnae are small, generally roundish-ovate, slightly 
taper toward the base, and attached to the rachis by 
the narrowed stalk-like part, the margin being deeply 
crenated. The venation is distinct : the midvein 
sends off alternately a series of venules, either simple 
or forked, which have the sori on their anterior side. 
The sori are oblong, covered at first by membranous 
* Asplenium Trichomanes ramosum ( Linnaeus ), Asplenium 
intermedium ( Presl ). 
