390 PROPERTIES AND USES. 
Adantium Capillus Veneris. 
Venus’ Hair, or Maiden Hair Fern. 
This Fern is found in many countries, and is abundant in 
the South of Europe ; it derives the name of Maiden Hair 
from the circumstance of a syrup being prepared from it 
called Capillaire, which being slightly odoriferous, or made 
so by the addition of Orange flower water, is used by the 
women in dressing their hair, and for promoting its 
growth. Dioscorides, and other physicians of his time, 
attributed numerous medicinal virtues to it, and our old 
herbalists held it in high repute. Ray, in his “ History of 
Plants,” details at great length its wonderful properties, 
his catalogue of diseases curable by preparations of this 
Fern seems to include nearly “all the ills that flesh is heir 
to.” Its fronds are still sold in herb shops for the prepa- 
ration of “ Syrup of Capillaire,” from which, by dilution 
with water, a refreshing beverage is made. It contains 
tannic and gallic acids, and is slightly astringent. 
A. pedatum. In North America this is used for making 
Capillaire. It is included in the list of herbs prepared bythe ` ` 
Shakers, who subject them to heavy pressure, producing, for — 
trade purposes, a kind of hard cake in the form of a brick, — - 
of which there are many specimens in the Kew Museum. — 
-~ A. trapeziforme is a native of the West Indies, it 
possesses the same qualities as A. Capillus Veneris. 
A. Aithiopicum is used in South Africa as a pectoral SC 
medicine, and A. dolabriforme is used for the same purpose D 
Ahi 
Ornithopteris aquilina. 
This Fern is well known by the name of Brake ge S e 
| Braken, it is the most common and at the same time the ; 
most useful of Ferns in an economic point of view. | 
