By Adella Prescott.

Some years ago when for me there were but two species of ferns, those that were finely cut and those that were not—and maidenhair—I supposed of course that the narrow leaved spleenwort (Asplenium angustifolium) was simply a hardy sword fern and that both were varieties of the Christmas fern! But when I began to read the fascinating pages of Clute and Parsons and Waters I found, even in the early summer, that there were differences and by the time the sori appeared I was wise enough to recognize the characteristic mark of the spleenworts. Even then I thought it but a common fern for in the woods with which I was most familiar it grew plentifully and it was not till sometime later that I learned that it is at least rare enough to insure for itself a welcome whenever found.

It is an extremely local plant and may be looked for perhaps for years before being found though it has a wide distribution and is apt to be plentiful where it grows at all. It prefers rather moist soil and seems to like Goldie’s fern for a neighbor as I have often found them in close proximity.

The fronds grow in tufts from a creeping rootstock and are said to reach a height of four feet but all that I have seen were shorter by at least a foot. The blades are simply pinnate with many long, narrow pinnules tapering to slender tips. The fertile fronds are taller with the pinnules much narrower and the linear sori borne in two rows along the midrib of each pinnule. The fronds are delicate in texture and are easily destroyed by summer storms, yet the plant is able to adapt itself in some degree to its environment for a plant that I have in a border where it is exposed to cold winds has become much more rugged both in appearance and in fact. It is a charming addition to the fern garden making a pleasing foil to Nephrodium spinulosum, Dicksonia and other finely cut varieties.

I think it is a pity that the silvery spleenwort has no common name but one that is suggestive of a varied assortment of “blues,” and that does not certainly belong to it at that. But when we consider the discomforts suggested by the word “spleeny” we may think after all that this plain unassuming plant would prefer to be classed among the spleenworts with their fabled powers of healing rather than among the gentle folk of the Athyriums where perhaps it rightly belongs.

The silvery spleenwort, Asplenium thelypteroides, or Athyrium thelypteroides as some prefer to call it, has few characteristics that would make it noticeable among other species. It is of an ordinary size, from two to three feet in height, and the fronds are produced singly from a stout creeping rootstock but they grow so close together as to suggest a circular crown. They are once pinnate with deeply lobed pinnules and have rather a soft velvety texture though quite thin and delicate. The blade is oblong, tapering both ways from the middle and there is little difference between the fertile and sterile fronds.

The sori are borne in regular double rows on the pinnules and while in general they are like those of the spleenwort yet they are frequently curved after the fashion of the lady fern, making a puzzling question on which the botanical doctors fail to agree.

This species is fairly common over a wide area and while not possessing any striking beauty is interesting and attractive to the true lover of ferns.

New Hartford, N. Y.