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nearly resemble. It appears to be usually found in tliis country
growing sparingly in company witb Asplenium soptentrionale.
This rupestral Fern is one of the rarest of British species, but few
stations and in these but few plants having been discovered. There
are records of its having been found in North Wales, in the Lake
District, in the extreme north of Fngland, and in both the Lowlands
and Highlands of Scotland. Mr. Hutchison, who found A.
fontanum near Stonehaven, has informed us that it is plentiful on
rooks almost inaccessible, near Airlie Castle, Forfarshire, but we
have seen no specimens from thenoe. Its altitudinal range has been
approximately computed at between 300 and 600 feet above the sea ;
but it probably reaches at least an elevation of 1000 feet in Wales.
The habitats are:—
Peninsula.—Somersetshire : near Culborne, Miss Payne.
N. Wales.—Denbighshire : Books near Llanrwst (Bwloh-y-mijm),
II. Wilson; between Llanrwst and Capel Curig, Cyh. Brit. Carnarvonshire
: Moel Leohog, Llanberris, Mr. WiUiams.
Lakes. — Cumberland: HelveUyn, Pev. W. II. Hawker, F.
Olowes; Borrowdale, Miss Wright, H. E. Smith.
Tyne.—Northumberland : Kyloe rooks, O. P . Tate.
E. Loidands.—^Eoxburghshire : rooks two miles from Kelso on the
Tweed, Bickson; Minto Crags near Hassendean, Br. Niohol. Fdin-
burghshire: Arthur’s Seat (Mr. S. F. Gray has a specimen so labelled)
; gathered within two miles of Fdinburgh 1857, P. N. Fraser.
E. Highlands.—Fifesliire : three miles from Dunfermline, Br.
Bewar. Perthshire: Stenton rook near Dunlreld, Br. McNah;
near Perth, Mr. Bishop. ? Forfarshire : near Airlie Castle, B.
Hutchison.
The Alternate-leaved Spleenwort appears to have been found
sparingly throughout northern and central Europe, ooourring as far
north as Helsingfors in the Gulf of Finland, and passing thenoe to
Norway and Sweden, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Switzerland,
and the Tyrol, the Carpathian Mountains, Germany, Hungary,
Bukowina, Croatia, Dalmatia, Italy, and Spain. We have no information
of its occurrence in other parts of the world.
This rare Fern is one which does not thrive under cultivation,
except with careful management. If potted in porous soil, with the
crown well elevated, and covered by an elevated bell-glass in a close
shaded frame or cool house or pit, so as to be protected from drip,
it will generally grow with tolerable vigour; but the plants are very
liable to perish under confinement in winter. The best safeguard
is, not to allow water to reach the crowns, and at the same time to
keep the roots just moderately moist, and not to suffer the bell-
glasses, employed to protect thorn from the risk of being wetted, to
injure them by retaining a constantly damp atmosphere, which they
will do if they are kept closed. For open rook cultui-e, where it
might be desirable to employ protection from atmospheric changes,
tho plan of using glasses furnished with a couple of small apertures
opposite each other, as vents, near the top, so suooessfuUy adopted
by Mr. Clowes in cultivating IlymenophyUum, would no doubt be
found congenial to these shy-growing mountain Aspleniums. The
plants may be increased by dividing the crowns.
The species is so rare that varieties are scarcely likely to occur m
a wild state, and we do not know of any which have been obserwd.
A new form, showing a slight variation from the normal condition,
has however been produced in cultivation:—
1. acutidentatum (M.) This variety, which is we believe unique,
differs from the usual form, in having the teeth of the lobes acute
instead of obtuse. It has boon raised by Mr. Sim of Footscray,
and is an interesting sport. [Plate LXXX B.]
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