| GROUP V | FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; |
This plant resembles the Walking Leaf to such an extent that formerly it was not considered a separate species. The long, slender apex of its frond, which, it is said, sometimes takes root, as in the Walking Leaf, gave ground for its confusion with that fern. But the tapering apex of the frond of the Pinnatifid Spleenwort is not so long and the veins of the frond are free.
The Pinnatifid Spleenwort grows on rocks. Its usual companions are the Mountain Spleenwort and the Maidenhair Spleenwort. Williamson tells us that, though it is quite common in Kentucky, he has never found a frond which rooted at the apex. Eaton, however, speaks of "one or two instances of a slight enlargement of the apex, as if there were an attempt to form a proliferous bud."
33. BRADLEY'S SPLEENWORT
Asplmium Bradleyi
New York to Georgia and Alabama, westward to Arkansas, on rocks preferring limestone. Six to ten inches long, with slender, chestnut-brown stalks.
Fronds.— Oblong-lanceolate or oblong, tapering to a point, pinnate; pinnæ oblong-ovate, lobed or pinnatifid; fruit-dots short, near the midrib; indusium delicate.
To my knowledge the only place in the northeastern States where this rare and local species has been collected is near Newburg, N. Y., where Dr. Eaton found a plant growing on lime rock in 1864.
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