86 
FEENT COMBES. 
Asplei^iiim maeinum. Sea Spleenwort. 
(Plate VI. Pig. 2.) 
Prond strap-shaped, once divided ; pinnules 
stalked, irregularly oblong, broadest at the base, 
swelling out on the upper side, more or less ser- 
rated. 
Var. lobatum ; the pinnules have a lobe on the 
upper side, making the plant almost bipinnate. 
The Sea Spleenwort grows in unsurpassed luxuri- 
ance in the West of England. It abounds about 
Ilfracombe and Lee ; but the largest that has ever 
come under our notice was in Hartland parish. On 
one plant the fronds were eighteen inches long; 
and the caudex, or root-stem, which was three inches 
high, measured fifteen inches in circumference. It 
was of the variety lobatum. 
This plant grows in shady nooks among the 
cliffs, attaining the greatest size where some small 
spring finds its way through the rock. In such a 
position we found it one lovely summer evening, 
just as the sun was sinking like a ball of fire into 
the Atlantic, gilding the craggy clifi*s and shining 
yellow sand with its last rays, a little to the right 
of Hartland Quay, at the entrance of a large cave, 
in company with Osmunda regalis, within the reach 
of the spray ; a curious position for the latter. 
