FAMILY HERBAL. 2J1 



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foan fern of the divided kind^ only very smalL 

 It grows to eight or ten inclies high. The stalks 

 are thicks black, and glossy. The leaves are very 

 beautifully divided into a great many parts: these 

 are short, of a dark shiriing green, and deeply notch- 

 ed at the edges, and they terminate in a sharp pointy 

 flot blunt as some of those already mentioned. The 

 seeds He on the edges of the under part of the leaves, 

 in form of a brown dust. It is not uncommon by 

 wood sides, and in shady lanes. 



A decoction of it works powerfully by urine^ 

 and it has the same virtue with the rest in the cure 

 of coughs. 



Of these four, for they possess the same virtues, 

 ^he preference is given to the first described, of 

 true kind ; next to the English maidenhair ; and 

 in defect of both these, to the black kind. The 

 tvhite maidenhair is preferred to any against the 

 gravel, and in suppression of urine ; but for the 

 common use in coughs and hoarsenesses, it is the 



least esteemed of ail. 



There is another plant, called by the name of maid- 

 enhair, which is yet to be described, it makes one of 

 what are commonly called the five capellary herbs, 

 hut it IS so distinct from the others, tf at it is best 



kept separate. They are all kinds of fern : this is a 

 iort of moss. 





Golden Maidenhair. Adiantum aureum. 



" A LITTLE upright plant, but considered as a 

 moss, one of the lar<^est of the kind. It grows 

 four or five inches high, "^hen in perfection. The 

 lower part of the stalk is covered for an inch or 

 more, with thick, short, narrow leaves, sharp at 

 the point, and of a dusky green colour : these stand 



iu^iicfa clusters, that they quite hide the stalk ; from 



