. ASPLENIUM. 
187 
close, it will then thrive well. The proper bell-glasses for 
these half-hardy Ferns are those with a small opening in 
the crown, which may be closed or not at pleasure, but in 
general is best left open. In pots it should have a gritty, 
porous soil. 
Asplenium Trichomanes, Linnceus. 
The Common Maidenhair Spleenwort. (Plate XIII. fig. 5.) 
This is rather a diminutive plant, but, when in a 
vigorous state, has a very interesting appearance, from the 
contrast between its black stipes and rachis, and the bright 
green pinnse, and from the regularity with which the latter 
are disposed. It grows in tufts, naturally introducing 
itself into the joints of old masonry and among the crevices 
of rocks, and producing numerous small slender fronds, of 
a linear form, in its most vigorous state nearly a foot long, 
but generally from three to six inches. 
The fronds are evergreen, simply pinnate, on a rather 
short stipes, which is of a purplish black, the rachis also 
being of the same dark colour. The pinnm are deep green, 
small and numerous, equal-sized, of a roundish-oblong 
figure, attached to the rachis by a stalk-like projection of 
their posterior base ; the margin is rather entire or crenated. 
