120 
THE FORKED SPLEENWORT. 
it on the other side of the rachis. The lobes are some- 
times so mnch separated as to look like distinct pinnae. 
There is no midrib or vein, the rachis answering the 
purpose if the frond is not lobed, or else becoming 
forked so as to send np one vein to each of the teeth. 
Three or four long linear sori are crowded into this 
small space, so that when the ripening sori burst the 
indnsia, they become confluent over the whole under- 
surface. This confluence of the sori over the whole 
under-surface has led some writers to consider this 
plant an Acrostichwn. Others, from the sori being 
face to face in consequence of their growing on each 
side of the vein and almost close, have thought it a 
Scolopendrium , the mark of which is to have the sori 
confluent in pairs face to face. It has therefore been 
sometimes called Acrostichum septentrionale and Scolo- 
pendrmm septentrionale. If the plant, however, be 
examined when young, it will be found to be a true 
Asplenium. 
The Forked Spleenwort does not appear to be found 
in Ireland ; but, though rare, has a wide range in 
Great Britain, from Devonshire to the Orkneys. It 
grows abundantly in some of the mountainous tracts 
of Central Europe, and extends from Russia and 
Scandinavia to Italy and Spain. In Asia it inhabits 
the mountain ranges of the Ural and the Altai, and 
is found from Northern India to the Caucasus. It 
occurs also in New Mexico. It prefers fissures of 
rocks, or between the stones of loose walls. 
As in the case of the allied species (Moore again, 
in the octavo edition of his Nature-printed British 
