each lobe, or if the frond is not lobed the stipes is continued
upwards in the form of a vein ; this becomes forked so as
to send up one vein to each of the teeth into which the
part is divided ; and three or four linear sori are produced
in a very crowded manner within this small space, so that
when from age the sori burst open the indusium, the spore-
cases form a confluent mass over the whole under-surface.
The confluent mass of spore-cases arising from the
crowded position of the sori, has led some authors to consider
this plant an Acrostichmi, the mark of which is to have the
whole under-surface thus covered. Some of the sori beinoÖface
to face, and almost in juxtaposition, has again led other
botanists to think it a Scolopendrium, the mark of which is
to have the sori confluent in pairs face to face ; but if the
plant is examined while young, it will be seen that these
resemblances are unreal, and that it is really an Asplenium.
It is thus that it has been called by the names of Aoro-
stichum septentrionale and Scolopendrium septentrionale ; to
which Amesium septentrionale has to be added as another
synonyme.
In cultivation it requires sandy peat-soil, and the shelter
of a close frame, or bell-glass.
A s p l e n ium T r ic h om a n e s , Linnoeus.— The Common
Spleen-wort. (Plate X III. fig. 5.)