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ALTERNATE-LEAVED SPLEENWORT. 
ASPLENIUM GERMANICUM, 
Weiss, Babington, Moore, and Benthaui, 
(Plate VII. Fig. 2 .) 
SYNONYMS. 
Asp'eniurn alternifolium, Wulfen, Smith, Hooker, and Arnott. 
Amesium germaniaim, Newman. 
THIS is very like the last species, and is perhaps 
only a variety, but the segments are much narrower. 
It grows in little tufts. The whole frond is narrow 
usually—simply pinnate—with the lower segments 
three-lobed, or very rarely bearing three distinct 
segments. The pinnae have two or three distinct 
lines of sori crowded on their under surface, which 
ultimately meet in the centre. The indusium is entire 
at the edge, not jagged, as in the Wall Rue. 
This is, perhaps, the rarest of our British ferns. 
There is little to distinguish it from A. Ruta muraria. 
It has very seldom been found in England, Wales, or 
Ireland, and rarely in Scotland. Mr. Newman men¬ 
tions three localities there where it has been gathered ; 
viz.—near Dunfermline, Dunkeld, and on rocks on 
the Tweed, two miles from Kelso. In other parts of 
Europe it is occasionally seen, but grows very sparingly. 
The scarcity of this fern prevents our saying much 
as to its artificial growth in the open air. 
It is much prized in Germany and the south of 
France, and is frequently brought here from thence 
