A s p l e n iu m l a n c e o l a t u m , Hudson. — The Lanceolate
Spleenwort. (Plate X II. fig. 1.)
We have here an evergreen Pern of variable size, seldom
in cultivation having the vigour which it exhibits near the
coast in our south-western counties, and especially in the
Channel Islands. As might be expected, it evidently requires
a mild and sheltered climate, so that in a hot-honse,
where the temperature is not kept too high, it grows freely,
which can seldom be said of plants kept in a cold frame in
the climate of London, and never of plants fully exposed.
Under the least favourable circumstances its fronds are
from four to six inches long ; but under the most favourable
conditions they reach the length of a foot, or even a foot
and a half. The fronds are of a lanceolate form, supported
on a brownish-coloured stipes of about a third of their
entire length, the stipes as well as the rachis having, scattered
throughout their length, numerous small bristle-like
scales. In the more vigorous wild plants the habit seems
to be erect, but the cultivated plants mostly assume a
spreading or even decumbent mode of growth. This species
is very closely related to the common Asplenium Adiantum-
nigrum, which, in some of its states, very much resembles
it; but the outline of the fronds will, we believe, always
Plate, 111.