The Fern Lover's Companion / A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada

by George Henry Tilton

[Illustration: Maidenhair Spleenwort. Asplenium Trichomanes]

(4) MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. Asplenium Trichómanes

Stipes densely tufted, purple-brown, shining. Fronds three to eight inches long, linear, dark green, rather rigid. Pinnæ 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 párvulum. A. resíliens

Fronds four to ten inches tall, narrowly linear, rather firm, erect. Pinnæ 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.