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COMMON S PLEENWORT.
A s p l e n iu m T r ic h o m a n e s of Authors.
Asplenium Saxatile.—Gray.
LOCALITIES.
E n g la n d .A
Sco t la nd . [ Genera lly d is trib u te d .
I r e l a n d J
T h i s plant occurs so commonly in all parts of England, Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland, that I did not consider myself justified
in printing the alarming list of localities which I had prepared:
it grows on rocks, walls, churches, bridges, ruins, and sometimes,
but less frequently, on banks and in hedgerows. I once found
it in the valley of the Wye, near the little town of Bualt, growing
in such profusion on a bridge that it formed a continuous
covering of green: there is scarcely anything in the vegetable
world more beautiful than such a sight as this, and those only
who have tried the experiment can say how readily such a sight
may he realized hy cultivation.
The roots are black, tough, and very insinuating, forcing their
way into crevices of rock, that would have otherwise remained
invisible; and certainly, in old buildings, promoting decay, by
disintegrating the mortar, which, however enfeebled hy time.
still adds in some degree to their strength and durability. The
rhizoma is black, scaly, and tufted. The fronds make their
appearance in May and June, arrive at maturity in August and
September, and remain perfectly green throughout the winter ;
they ai-e fertile only.
The rachis is naked for a third part of its length, smooth,
shining, and black throughout ; the form of the frond is narrow,
linear, and simply pinnate : the pinnae are dark green, and very
numerous ; irregularly ovate, obtuse at the apex, and more or
less crenate at the margins ; they are usually distinct and distant,
but sometimes crowded, and each recumbent on the one preceding
it ; they are attached to the rachis by their stalks only, and when
the frond approaches decay the pinnae fall off like the leaves of
phænogamous plants, leaving the rachis a bare denuded bristle :
in size they vary from that of those represented in the fronds,
to that of the detached pinnæ illustrating the fructification.
The lateral veins are forked soon after leaving the midvein, the
anterior branch hears an elongate linear mass of thecæ, almost
immediately after the fork : this mass is at first covered with an
elongate, linear, white membranous indusium ; as the thecæ
swell this becomes obliterated, and the masses, which are black,
become nearly confluent in two portions, which, however, very
rarely unite over the midrib : the masses are ten or twelve in
number.
The gothic windows of an old abbey afford many convenient
crevices for this pretty fern ; but the ferns sketched in the Vignette
include the Hart’s-tongue, and other species.
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