.jpg)
.jpg)
18. NARROW-LEAVED SPLEEN-WORT
Asplenium angustifolium
Canada to Kentucky, in moist woods. Two to four feet high.
Sterile fronds.—Thin, smooth, lance-shaped, perishable, once-pinnate.
Fertile fronds.—Taller, narrower, longer-stalked; pinnæ more narrowly lance-shaped than on sterile fronds; fruit-dots linear, a row on each side the midvein; indusium slightly convex.
If we make an expedition to the woods early in July we may, perhaps, find some plants of the Narrow-leaved Spleenwort. At this season they are specially attractive, with smooth, delicate, pale-green fronds, so recently unfolded as to be full of little undulations, which they lose more or less at maturity, and which are as indicative of youth as the curves and dimples of a baby.
98
