► ,
r>
».■
I» h
i *
K'
K
K - m
^1
1 ! ^ * i
'
B l i < ^ ^11k
of Dr. Mettenius, and probably of Kunze also, but not that of
Michaux.
Although the Linnæan name for the present fern is unquestionably
the oldest, it is scarcely probable that those authors who
are disposed to insist upon an inflexible law of priority will
attempt to replace the name which has been accepted by nearly
all botanists for nearly a century by one so utterly inappropriate
as platy7ieuroii. Yet, lest they should do so, it may be worth
while to note that this fern was named Asplenium platyneuron
by the late Mr. Oakes of Ipswich, in a marginal note in a copy
of the old “ Flora Virginica,” now in my possession.
Plate IV., Fig. I , represents a specimen of the common form in New
England, together with a few pinnæ of the more serrated or incised varieties,
and a small portion of a pinna, somewhat magnified.
P l a t e IV . — F ig . 2.
A S P L F N IU M F B F N O ID F S , R. R. S c o t t .
S co t t ’ s Spleenw or t.
A s p l e n iu m e b e n o i d e s : — Fronds four to nine inches long,
broadly lanceolate, pinnatifid, pinnate near the base, the apex elongated
and slender; divisions lanceolate from a broad base, crenate,
some of them elongated and often proliferous, as is the apex of
the frond; the lowest divisions distinct, shorter; sori numerous
on the divisions and on the long apex, mostly single and opening
obliquely upwards, but some of them double, and others facing
each other in pairs; stalk blackish and shining, as is also the
lower part of the rachis, especially on the under side.
Asplenium ebenoides, R. R obinson Sco'it, MS. and in B e r k e l e y ’s notice in
Journ. Royal Horticult. Soc., 1866, p. 87, t. 2, f. i . — E aton, in
Gray’.s Manual, ed. v., p. 661. — LEGGE'rr, in Torrey Club Bull., iv.,
p. 1 7 .
H a b . — On limestone cliffs of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia,
S cott, F. B ourquin ; near Havana, Central Alabama, Miss T u tw il e r ; on
limestone in Canaan, Conn., J. S. A dam .
D e s c r i p t io n . — The stalk is slender, polished, and nearly
black, the color extending on the under side as far as the middle
of the frond, or a little farther. The frond is composed of a tapering
crenate apex two or three inches long, and of a number of
>1