[ 2258 ]
A S P L EN I U M alternifolium.
Alternate-leaved Spleenwort.
à a
CRYPTOGAMIA Filices.
Gen. Char. Fructif. in scattered lines. Involucrimt
o rig ina ting laterally from a vein and: bursting in wardly.
Spec. Char. Frond pinnate; leaflets alternate,, w ed g e -
shaped, erect, ja g g ed at the extremity.
Syn. Asplénium alternifolium. Jacq. JWisc. v. 2 . 51.
t. 5.ƒ . 2. Dicks. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 2. 290.
Sm. FI. Brit. 1130. With. 768. Hull. 241.
A. germanicum. Weis. Gott. 299. Ehrh. Crypt. 43.
Scolopendrium alternifolium. Both. Germ. v. 3. 53.
Adiantum novum germanicum, rutæ murariæ fac
ie . Breyn. Cent. 1. 97.
O u R good friend Mr. Dickson, whose discoveries have undoubtedly
more copiously enriched the British Flora, than
those of any other person since the days of Ray and Dillenius,
favoured us with this specimen, gathered by himself on sunny
rocks in the south of Scotland, about two miles from Kelso,
on the Tweed. We are not aware that any other person in
Britain has noticed the plant.
This is, as it were,-an intermediate species between A. sep-
tentrionale, t. 1017, and A. Ruta muraria, t. 150, but quite
distinct from both. The lanceolate form of the frond taken
collectively,* its brighter colour, and the numerous simply alternate
leaflets, gradually smaller as they are nearest the point,
are its clear characteristics. The figure of each leaflet is a
narrow wedge-shape, jagged at the top, sometimes deeply divided,
and very rarely indeed the lowermost is compound. The
lines o f fructification are short and pale.