ASPLENIUM FONTANUM.
ROCK POLYPODY, or SMOOTH ROCK SPLEENWORT, whichever English name you like to designate it by, is one of our rare British ferns, several botanists have been sceptical as to its being “a real native,” but since it has been found in so many localities in England, and especially at Petersfield, within ten miles of my own den, growing upon a wall at Ashford, I must give it a place in their ranks. It is a delicate fern; one that requires cultivation. It should be kept under glass, and carefully protected from the sun, much moisture, too, is injurious, and yet it will soon die if kept very dry, so you see it wants attention, and watching, What ferns do not, if we wish them to look well?
The best way of propagating it is by division, and the proper soil is a mixture of sandy peat with lime rubbish, such as old mortar and bricks broken up into small pieces, for the roots of the A. Fontanum delight in good drainage, and in creeping through the little crevices left between the bricks. It is a very capital plan to place a small quantity of moss on the top of this drainage stuff when ferns are grown in pots, so as to prevent the earth from filling up the holes. I have never heard that this fern has been discovered in a fountain, or on the inside wall of an old well. It delights on dry old walls and rocks; therefore the name of ‟fontanum” seems singularly inappropriate.
It has a dark, thick, short root, furnished with a great number of rootlets. Its fronds grow very prettily in an erect tuft, and are sometimes eight inches long. The stem is nearly covered with pale green leaflets, which are alternate, and some of them are divided into leafits, that little portion of the stem which has no leaflets on it is covered with scales, the tuft of the root also is scaly. The sori are short, and are quite as often found distinct as they are running together. On the leafets, close to the side veins, sometimes two or three, and occasionally five formations are discovered; a sort of white skin (the indusium) covers them, but unless these several marks are well looked for by a person tolerably versed in ferns, many people would be apt to pass it by as an A. Trichomanes, which is a far more common species.
This Asplenium is an evergreen, and both the stem of the frond and the partial stalk or stem of each leaflet have a narrow leafy wing throughout their length. This is one of the chief distinctive features of the fern, and one all collectors will do well to observe.
HELEN E. WATNEY.