FERN FAMILY. 27 
11. ADIANTUM L.. Sp. Ll re94.. 1753. 
Graceful ferns of rocky hillsides, woods and ravines, with much divided leaves and short 
marginal sori borne on the under side of the reflexed and altered portion of the pinnule 
which serves as an indusium. Stipes and branches of the leaves very slender or filiform, 
polished and shining. Sporanges borne at the ends of free forking veins, provided with a 
vertical ring which bursts transversely. [Name ancient. ] 
_ _Agenus of 80 or go species, mostly of tropical America. Besides the following another occurs 
in Florida, one in Texas and one in California. 
Leaves 2-pinnate, ovate-lanceolate in outline. 1. A. Capillus-Veneris. 
Leaves dichotomously forked with pinnate branches. 2. A. pedatum. 
1. Adiantum Capillus-Véneris L. Venus-hair Fern. (Fig. 59.) 
Adiantum Capillus-Veneris 1. Sp. Pl. 1096. 
1753- 
Rootstock creeping, rather slender, chaffy 
with light-brown scales. Stipes very slender, 
black, or nearly so and shining, 3/-9’ long; 
leaves ovate-lanceolate in outline, 2 pinnate 
below, simply pinnate above, membranous, 
commonly drooping, 6/-2° long, 4/-12’ wide 
at the base; pinnules and upper pinnae 
wedge-obovate or rhomboid, rather long- 
stalked, glabrous, the upper margin rounded 
and more or less incised, crenate or dentate- 
serrate, except where it is recurved to form 
the indusia; main and secondary rachises 
and stalks of the pinnules black or dark 
brown like the stipe. 
In ravines, Virginia to Florida, west to Mis- 
souri, Utah and California. Ascends to 1300 ft. 
in Kentucky. Also in tropical America, and 
widely distributed in the warmer parts of the 
Old World. June-Aug. 
2. Adiantum pedatum IL. Maiden-hair Fern. (Fig. 60.) 
Adiantum pedatum V,. Sp. Pl. 1095. 1753- 
Rootstock slender, creeping, chaffy, root- 
ing along its whole length. Stipes 9/—18/ 
long, dark chestnut-brown, polished and 
shining, dichotomously forked at the sum- 
mit; leaves obliquely orbicular in outline, 
8’-18’ broad, membranous, the pinnae 
arising from the upper sides of the two 
branches of the stipe, somewhat radiately 
arranged, the larger ones 6’-10’ long, 1/—2/ 
wide; pinnules oblong, triangular-oblong, 
or the terminal one fan-shaped, short-stalked, 
the lower margin entire and slightly curved, 
the upper margin cleft, lobed or dentate, 
bearing the linear-oblong, often short sori. 
In woods, Nova Scotia to British Columbia, 
south to Georgia and Arkansas, in the Rocky 
Mountains to Utah and to California. Ascends 
to 5000 ft. in Virginia. Also in Alaska and west- 
ern Asia, July-Sept. 
