ASPLENIUM VIRIDE. 
67 
alternate, which are mostly, but not always, forked, and 
their ends rarely extend to the edge of the leaflt. The 
fructification is from two to six masses on each leafit, 
more yellowish-brown than in A. trichomanes, and more 
in the middle of the leafit than in that species, and 
though they finally usually run together and cover the 
hack of the leafit, yet they never reach its edge, hut leave 
a regular border of the leafit round the ripe fructifica¬ 
tion. At first the fructification is covered with a narrow 
membrane; hut this is thrown off as the seeds (spores) 
ripen, which ocours about the end of August. 
The frond branching at the end is not permanent 
even in the same plant, yet some botanists have 
distinguished it as a variety. It is the Asplenium 
trichomanes ramosum of Linnteus, and the Trichomanes 
ramosus of Bauhin and some others. 
It will be seen from the above description that the 
species very closely resembles A. trichomanes , though, 
as observed by Mr. Francis, it is immediately dis¬ 
tinguished from it by the lighter colour of all its parts, 
and especially the greenness of the stalk, its less- 
spreading fructification, differently shaped and more 
alternate loafits, which leafits on the lower part of the 
frond are generally wide apart, whilst the leafits near 
its top are more crowded, and tho whole plant is much 
more delicate and graceful. — (Analysis of British 
Ferns. 52.) 
It is found on moist rocks and old walls in some of 
our mountain districts. In England, not further south 
than Derbyshire; but it lias been gathered inNorthum- 
