100 
MAIDEN-HAIR SPLEENWORT. 
its having inhabited Wythburn (fonnd there by 
Hudson, about 1775) until exterminated by the 
‘ greed of collectors.’ Let the race take heed ! 
The Black Maiden-Hair Spleenwort is an evergreen, 
growing in tufts, and varying in height from three or 
four inches to eighteen or more, including the stipes, 
which is often as long as or longer than the leafy 
portion, except in stunted specimens. The stipes is of 
a shining dark purple. The fronds are either erect or 
drooping, according to situation, of a thick leathery 
texture, triangular, more or less elongated toward the 
point, bipinnate, sometimes tripinnate; the pinnas pin¬ 
nate, triangular-ovate and elongated at the point, the 
lower pair longer than the next above them; the pin¬ 
nules, especially on the lower pinnae, again pinnate, 
the alternate pinnules deeply lobed and the margins 
sharply serrated. The veins are numerous, each pin¬ 
nule haviug its distinct midvein branching into simple 
or farther-branching veins, on which the sori are pro¬ 
duced near the junction with the midvein,— that is to 
say, near the centre of every lobe or pinnule. All the 
ultimate divisions of the fronds, as well as all the 
larger lobes, have midveins with these simple or 
branched venules. When young, the sori are distinct 
and of the elongated narrow form common to the 
genus, but, growing older, they spread till they often 
become confluent and cover the entire under-surface of 
the frond. The indusiam is narrow, its margin free 
and entire; but it is soon lost being pushed away by 
the growing sori. This species is very variable : in 
dry and exposed places small and obtuse, in more 
