FERN FAMILY 29 



4. ADIANTUM. Maidenhair. 

 Sori borne on the inner surface of reflexed portions of the 

 margin of the frond, the indusium thus formed being divided 

 into varying lengths. Midrib of the ultimate segments lateral 

 or the forking and usually free veinlets rising directly from 

 the stalk of the segment. Stalks mostly dark reddish-brown 

 and usually highly polished. 



1. A. pedatum L. Five-finger Fern. American Maidenhair. 

 Stalks 2 to 15 in. long, dark-brown and polished, forked at 

 summit and bearing 6 to 14 finger-like pinnae. Fronds semi- 

 circular in outline, central finger longest (sometimes 1 ft. 

 long and 2 in. wide); segments short-stalked, triangular- 

 oblong, lower margin entire, upper margin lobed and finely 

 cut and bearing a few oblong-lunate sori. Principal vein of 

 each segment parallel and close to the lower margin, the vein- 

 lets rising to the upper margin. 



Five-finger, sometimes called American Maidenhair, grows 

 only where there is plenty of moisture. It likes best cool, 

 damp, protected rock-crevices. A beautiful grotto of this kind 

 may be seen from the trail as one climbs out of Tenaya Canon 

 above Mirror Lake. To the left of the trail about half way up 

 is an overhanging arch of rock from which water drips and 

 under the arch is a beautiful waving fringe of this fern. It is 

 fervently hoped that its inaccessibility will long save it for the 

 appreciation of true fern lovers. Those who had the privilege 

 of visiting the Yosemite Valley twenty and thirty years ago 

 say that the Five-finger then grew abundantly about the vari- 

 ous falls. Today it is almost exterminated. Very careful 

 search revealed it in only a few unfrequented places or ledges 

 not easily reached. 



2. A. jordanii Muell. Stalks a few inches to a foot long, 

 continued through the frond, blackish and polished. Frond 

 about as long as the stalk, broadly ovate or triangular, 2 to 

 3-pinnate below; segments long-stalked, % to 1 in. wide, 

 rounded, fan-shaped, or even kidney-shaped, lower margins 

 entire, upper edges lobed twice or several times; the lobes 

 in sterile fronds sharply toothed; lobes in the fertile fronds 

 recurved, forming long indusia. Veins all radiating from the 

 stalk of the segment. {A. emarginatum Hook.) 



This Maidenhair, although common in the Coast Ranges, 

 seems to be scarce in the Sierra Nevada. It grows only in 

 moist places at low altitudes, as on Mt. Buckingham and 

 elsewhere near El Portal. A. capillis -veneris L., the Venus- 

 hair, has been reported from Yosemite Valley, but its occur- 



