THE SPLEENWORTS. 
413 
5 . 
THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 
Asjplenium adiantum-nigrum. 
Plate 7, Pig-. 4. 
E Black Maidenhair is, perhaps, the 
most elegant of the Spleenworts, chiefly 
on account of the elaborate and beau¬ 
tiful manner in which its fronds are divided. It 
grows from a very tufted root-stock, and throws 
up thick clusters of fronds, which vary con¬ 
siderably in height. Sometimes, when growing 
on walls in somewhat dry and exposed situations, 
it may be found no more than an inch or at most 
two or three inches high. But when it is in 
situations more congenial to it, and under con¬ 
ditions such as will be presently described, it 
attains a height of from eighteen inches to two 
feet, and possesses extreme elegance. The young 
fronds and their stems are, when first starting 
from the root-stock, ordinarily light-green in 
colour. But, as they attain maturity, they become 
