BLACK SPLEENWORT. 133 
masses of seeds, together with their involucres, are 
situated rather nearer the midvein than the margin, 
and the involucres open towards the midvein. As the 
ds advance towards maturity, the involucre is lifted 
and pushed away from its original situation, and 
finally entirely disappears; the masses then become 
confluent, and their form is lost. This fern varies 
greatly in the amount of cutting or division of the 
frond; but these discrepancies seem to be the result 
external circumstances, and not of constitutional 
oa been found in every country of , Baniges a 
and South Africa, in Madeira, Teneriffe, —_ 
ber of specimens, has not yet been afforded me. 
It is remarkably enduring and long-lived when 
The best mode of cultivation, where the 
phere is” Seas pr 3 is to ~—* 
is a very ornamental fern for rockwork and 
