moisture, has been made for it ; but planted in a well-drained
pot, and kept in a close, cold frame, or in a damp hot-house,
it grows freely, becoming much more vigorous under the iii-
üuence of heat.
The other names which have been given to this Eern,
besides that here adopted, are these :— Aspidium fontanum,
Atliyrium fontanum, Polypodium fontanum, and Aspidium
Halleri.
A s p l e n iu m g e rm a n ic um , fFeiss.—The Alternate Spleenwort.
(Plate X III. fig. 3.)
One of the rarest of our native Eerns, and perfectly distinct
from A. Ruta-muraria, of which some botanists have
thought it to be a variety. It grows in little tufts, the
fronds being from three to six inches high, sub-evergreen,
narrow-linear in form, pinnate, divided into distant, alternate,
wedge-shaped pinnæ, one or two of the lowest having generally
a pair of very deeply divided lobes, the upper ones
more and more slightly lobed, all having their upper ends
toothed or notched.
The whole fronds are quite small, and the parts narrow,
which, added to their opacity, renders the venation indistinct
; there is no midvein, but each pinna or lobe has a
vein entering from the base, which becomes two or three
73
times branched as it reaches the broader parts upwards, six
or eight veins generally lying close together, in a narrow fanshaped
manner, in each of the larger pinnæ, the smaller
ones having a proportionately less number. Two or three
linear sori are produced on a pinna, and these are covered
by membranous indusia, the free margin of which is entire,
or slightly sinuous, but not jagged ; the sori at length become
confluent.
Very rarely met with in Scotland, but nowhere else in the
United Kingdom. It is found, but very sparingly, in other
parts of Europe.
This kind is not only rare, but one of those which does
not freely yield to artificial culture. It grows tolerably
freely if potted in well-drained, sandy peat-soil, and kept
under a bell-glass in a shaded frame—or better in a hothouse
; but the plants are very liable to die in winter. The
safeguard is, not to allow any water to lodge about their
crowns, nor to keep the bell-glass too closely or too constantly
over them.
This species is often named A. alfernifolium by British
authors ; but the name we have adopted claims precedence.
It has also been called Asplenium Preynii, Amesium
nicum, and Scolopendrium alternifolium.