root from walls, cultivators should transplant those growing 
on hedge-banks. The humble cottager, if he neatly inserts 
this Spleenwort on banks or rude stones, with others inter- 
mixed, may have as beautiful a Ternery as the proudest 
Peer in the land. 
Plate II, fig. 13. 
“ I’ll seek the shaggy fern-clad hill. 
^ ^ ^ ^ 
And watch ’mid murmurs muttering stern 
The seed departing from the Fern : 
’Ere wakeful demons can convey, 
The wonder-working charm away.” — Leyden. 
2. Black-stalked Spleenwort. Asplenium adiantum ni* 
grwn. This also is an ornamental Pern for rock-work and 
walls. Give it pure air, and a suitable position, and it 
thrives. In a London atmosphere it dwindles away, neither 
does it like to be a prisoner in a greenhouse. Like a true 
Briton, it must have its liberty. It is generally distributed 
throughout England and "Wales, but in some parts it 
flourishes far more than in others. In the vale of the Axe 
it luxuriates, and distinguishes itself. Its polished black 
stalk, and triangular frond, here exceed their usual height. 
In some places the plant is fifteen inches high, generally 
from eight to twelve. The branches are also branched, and 
triangular. It has a dark glossy green colour, much darker 
than the Prickly angular Pern, (polystichum angulare) and 
though it droops likewise, is. altogether of a more rigid 
texture. In the walls it is much more stunted than in the 
hedges. The clusters of fruit are linear, and approach the 
mid-rib of the leaflet. The branches grow alternate on the 
mid-stem, and the branchlets are alternate also. The leaflets 
are sharply serrated at their summit, and wedge-shaped at 
their base. The root stock is covered with hairy down, 
some of which reaches up to the lowest part of the frond. 
The roots 'themselves are dark brown. The stalk is as long 
as, or longer than, the leafy part. The lobes, or leaflets, have 
