ASPLENIUM. 
145 
Asplenium lanceolatum, Hudson, 
The Lanceolate Spleenwort (Plate XII. fig. 1.) 
We have here an evergreen Fern of variable size, seldom 
in cultivation having the vigour which it exhibits near 
the coast in our south-western counties, and especially in 
the Channel Islands. As might be expected, it evidently 
requires a mild and sheltered climate, so that in a hot- 
house, where the temperature is not kept too high, it 
grows freely, which cannot always be said of plants kept in 
a cold frame in the climate of London, and never of plants 
fully exposed. 
Under the least favourable circumstances, the fronds of 
this Fern are from four to six inches long ; but under the 
most favourable conditions they reach the length of a foot, 
or even a foot and a half. They are of a lanceolate form, 
supported on a brownish-coloured stipes of about a third of 
their entire length, the stipes as well as the rachis having, 
scattered throughout their length, numerous small bristle- 
like scales. In the more vigorous wild plants the habit 
seems to be erect, but the cultivated plants mostly assume 
a spreading or even decumbent mode of growth. This 
species is very closely related to the common Asplenium 
L 
