THE 
ALTERNATE-LEAVED SPLEENWORT. 
Asplenium germanicum. — Weis. 
The Alternate-leaved Spleenwort stands between 
the Wall Rne and the Forked Spleenwort, sometimes, 
indeed, marked as a dubious species, but decided by 
Moore to be perfectly distinct. It is one of the rarest 
of our Native Ferns, rare also in Northern and Central 
Europe. In other parts of the world it is not known. 
It is so rare here in Great Britain that Moore records 
only one single variety. Its altitudinal range is from 
300 to 600 feet above the sea. 
The Alternate Spleenwort grows in tufts, the fronds 
from three to six inches high, sub-evergreen (the 
fronds more or less persistent), narrow linear in 
general outline, pinnate, divided into distinct, alter- 
nate, wedge-shaped pinnae, one or two of the lowest 
having generally a pair of very deeply-divided lobes, 
the upper more and more slightly lobed, all having 
their upper ends toothed or notched. The venation 
is very indistinct, on account both of the narrowness 
of the parts of so small fronds and of their opacity. 
There is no midvein, but one of the venules extends 
to each of the teeth, each vein entering from the base 
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