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ASPLENIUM ADIANTUM-NIGBUM. LixifiEus. 
(Black Spleenwort.J 
SYXOXYMES. 
The name given by Linneeus seems to have been retained 
by all modern authors. 
DESCniPTIOX. 
Caijdex tufted with black wiry rootlets. 
Froxds triangular, twice or tlirice pinnate at the lower 
part, with the pinnm triangular, the ultimate pinnules 
being more or less toothed ; the middle and upper part of 
the frond being usually ^^innate with pinnatifid or toothed 
pinnae. They spring about May and continue green through 
the winter, growing from two or three to eighteen inches 
high. Stalks black and shining. 
Veixs in the pinnules or lobes alternate and forked, each 
branch bearing a cluster of 
Spore Cases covered with a white linear involucre which 
eventually disappears and the clusters become confluent. 
This fern grows freely in the coimtry under almost any 
circumstances ; but in towns it seems at best only just to 
live, sending up a few fronds that soon become dwarfed and 
misshapen. In moist hedge-banks it is a beautiful object, 
but grows to its largest size amongst brambles and the 
roots of fences. 
E. 
