Northern New England, west and northwest on shaded limestone rocks.

[Illustration:  Maidenhair Spleenwort. Asplenium Trichomanes]

(4) MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. Asplenium Trichomanes

Stipes densely tufted, purple-brown, shining.  Fronds three to eight inches long, linear, dark green, rather rigid.  Pinnae roundish-oblong or oval, entire or finely crenate, attached at the base by a narrow point.  Midveins forking and evanescent.

Not very common, but distributed almost throughout North America.  May be looked for wherever there are ledges, as it does not require limestone.  July.

[Illustration:  Maidenhair Spleenwort. Asplenium Trichomanes (From Woolson’s “Ferns,” Doubleday, Page & Co.)]

(5) SMALL SPLEENWORT

Asplenium parvulum.  A. resiliens

Fronds four to ten inches tall, narrowly linear, rather firm, erect.  Pinnae opposite, oblong, entire or finely crenate, and auricled at the base.  Stipes and rachis black and shining.  Midveins continuous.

This small fern is a southern species half way between the maidenhair and ebony spleenworts, but rather more like the latter from which it differs in being smaller and thicker, and in having the fertile and sterile fronds of the same size.  Mountains of Virginia to Kansas and southward.

(6) EBONY SPLEENWORT

Asplenium platyneuron.  A. ebeneum

Fronds upright, eight to eighteen inches high, linear-lanceolate, the fertile ones much taller, and pinnate.  Pinnae scarcely an inch long, the lower ones very much shorter, alternate, spreading, finely serrate or incised, the base auricled.  Sori numerous, rather near the midvein, stipe and rachis lustrous brown. ("Ebony.”)

This rigidly upright but graceful fern flourishes in rocky, open woods, and on rich, moist banks, often in the neighborhood of red cedars.  Having come upon it many times in our rambles, we should say it was not uncommon.

A lightly incised form of the pinnae has been described as var. serratum.  A handsome form discovered in Vermont in 1900 by Mrs. Horton and named Hortonae (also called incisum) has plume-like fronds with the pinnae cut into oblique lobes, which are coarsely serrate.

[Illustration:  Ebony Spleenwort. Asplenium platyneuron (Melrose, Mass., G.E.  Davenport)]

[Illustration:  Bradley’s Spleenwort. Asplenium Bradleyi a, from Maryland; b, from Kentucky (From Waters’s “Ferns,” Henry Holt & Co.)]

(7) BRADLEY’S SPLEENWORT. Asplenium Bradleyi

Fronds oblong-lanceolate, pinnate, three to ten inches long.  Pinnae oblong-ovate, obtuse, incised or pinnatifid into oblong, toothed lobes.  The basal pinnae have broad bases, and blunt tips and are slightly stalked.  Stipes and rachis dark brown and the sori short, near the midrib.

A rare and beautiful fern growing on rocks preferring limestone and confined mostly to the southern states.  Newburg, N.Y., to Kentucky and Alabama, westward to Arkansas.