128 BRITISH FERNS. 
In cultivation this beautiful and remarkable little 
fern should be planted amongst pieces of stone, and 
with the crown kept well above the surface: the best 
soil is a sandy peat: it will not bear a saucer, as the 
fronds and caudex are extremely liable to decay from 
the application of too much moisture. I have seen it 
growing in bog-earth in an open border, but I believe 
this is by no means commonly the case. 
$2. HUDSON’S SPLEENWORT. Lancroratum. 
Asplenium lanceolatum, Hudson. B. F. 219. 
_ The radicles are black, very long, slender and 
penetrating; in the fissures of rocks they penetrate 
to a great depth, and the caudex becomes so com: 
pletely and firmly wedged that it is often a task of 
great difficulty to obtain a living plant from such 
situations. The caudex is brown, tufted, and densely 
covered with bristle-like scales; similar scales are also 
scattered here and there on the stalk. The young 
fronds make their appearance in May, arrive at 
maturity in August, and remain uninjured throughout 
the winter; and, excepting in seedling plants, they 
_ are always fertile. The form of the frond is various ; 
in some situations it is of erect growth, nearly linear, 
and simply pinnate, the pinnae being stalked and 
Y produced, 
lobed: in this state seed is abundantl 
