ASPLENIUM. 
149 
which this bluntness of the parts seems characteristic 
being named obtusatum. This difference often becomes less 
marked in the cultivated plants than in those which occur 
in a wild state ; and there exist, even among the wild, 
many gradations of form. The species has also been met 
with having the fronds variegated with white. 
The variety acutum, sometimes called the Acute Spleen- 
w r ort (Plate XXII. fig. 2), differs principally in the more 
decidedly three-cornered fronds, which, in consequence of 
their shortness and breadth, and the high development 
of their basal pinnules, form a nearly equilateral triangle ; 
in the very much attenuated apices of the fronds and their 
pinnae, which are, in fact, what is called caudate; and in 
the extreme narrowness of the ultimate segments into 
which the very much divided frond is cut, these segments 
being narrow', linear, and acute. The fronds grow a foot 
or upwards in length, including a long brown stipes. In 
large specimens the leafy portion is about six inches long, 
and as much across the base, triangular, tripinnate. The 
lower pinnae are considerably larger than the next pair, 
and elongately triangular. The primary pinnules are 
ovate-acuminate; the secondary pinnules lozenge-shaped, 
these latter being cut down almost to the centre into linear 
