
76 BRITISH FERNS 
ASPLENIUM RUTA-MURARIA (THE WALL RUE) 
(Plate V) 
This little Fern (Fig. 35) is common on old walls, bridges, ейс., in 
association, frequently, with other Spleenworts, but often mono- 
polizing all the chinks near the tops of the walls with its little tufts 
of diminutive fronds, which, even in favourable positions, rarely 
exceed four or five inches in length. It lends itself very unwillingly 
to culture, requiring a dry atmosphere, and, of course, good drainage, 
in stony, limy soil. Where found, it is almost invariably rooted in 
old mortar, with no soil at all. A number of varieties are recorded, 
even a 
Cristatum (Fig. 36), found in several places, but it is open 
to doubt whether any have survived removal, and in any case 
they are all, with the above exception, erratic and depauperate. 

Fig. 37. Asp. septentrionale. 
ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE (THE FORKED SPLEENWORT) 
| (Plate УТ) 
Our figure (Fig. 37) so clearly indicates the difference between 
this and Asp. germanicum that a description is unnecessary, and as 
regards its habitats, etc., the remarks appended to that species 
apply exactly. No varieties. 
ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES (THE MAIDEN-HAIR SPLEENWORT) 
(Plate УП) 
This is one of the commonest, but to our mind the prettiest, 
Ferns, where old walls, stone dykes, and similar erections exist, 
and Ferns are generally plentiful, owing to a liberal rainfall. In 
such situations its pretty tufts, or rosettes, may be seen lining 
the chinks of the old walls by hundreds, both on the sunny and 
‘shady sides, and rooting obviously into the old mortar with no 
other appreciable admixture. Its fronds, usually about five or six 
inches in length, though in hedge dykes we have seen it over a foot 
long, are only once divided, and consist of a long black, hair-like 
stalk and midrib, whence the popular name, with a row on each 
side of oval pinne, attached by all but imperceptible jointed 



