THE BLACK MAIDEN-HAIR 
SPLEENW ORT. 
Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum .— Linnaeus. 
The true Spleenworts (so called from some old-time 
supposed virtue in curing diseases of the spleen) are 
small evergreens, known from all other of our native 
Ferns, except Oeterach , by the long narrow single sori 
lying in the direction of the veins which traverse the 
fronds,—• Ceterach being distinguished from them by 
having the backs of its fronds clothed with brown 
scales, under which the sori are hidden. From their 
next neighbours, the Athyriums, they are known by the 
latter having hippocrepiform (or horse-shoe shaped) 
sori and the free margins of the indusia fringed, while 
in the Aspleniums the sori are not curved, and the 
margins of the indnsia are but slightly jagged, if not 
quite entire. The Spleenworts, too, are evergreen; 
while the Lady Fern is deciduous. There are ten 
British species of Asplenium — fontanum , lanceolatum , 
Adiantum-nigrum , marinum , Trichomanes, viride 
Euta-Muraria, germanicum , septentrionale and A. 
Lancelatum. Of these, A. fontanum does not belong 
to the Lake District, though there is a tradition of 
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