ICONES FILICUM SINICARUM 
PLATE 216 
ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS Linné 
ADIANTACE 
ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS Linné Sp. Pl. 2; 1096. 1753; Sw. Syn. Fil. 124. 1806; Hook Gen. 
Fil. t. 60 B. 1836; Sp. Fil. 2: 36. 1851; Hook & Bak. Syn. Fil. 123. 1867; Milde, Fil. Europ Alt, 30. 1867; 
Bedd. Ferns South Ind. t. 4. 1863; Handb, Ferns Brit. Ind. 84. 1883; Christ, Farnkr, d. Erde 138. 
1897; Diels in Engl. u. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1: iv. 284. 1899; C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 24. 1905; Ogata, 
Ic. Fil. Jap. 1; t. 1. 1928; Ching in Sinensia 3: 340. 1933; Tagawa in Journ. Jap. Bot. 14: 313. 1936; 
Tard. et C. Chr. in Fl. Gen. Ind. 7: 185. 1940; DeVol, Ferns East. China 115. 1945; Ching in Acta 
Phytotax. Sinica 6: 341. 1957. 
Adiantum submarginatum Christ in Bull. Herb. Boiss. II. 3: 511. 1903 (pro parte). 
Adiantum Michelii Christ in Bull. Acad. Géogr. Bot. Mans. 1910: 10. 
Rhizome creeping, rather slender, densely clothed in rufo-brown linear-lanceolate scales; fronds pro- 
ximate, or quite distant, stipe slender, 10-16 cm long, polished, blackish, naked above the base, lamina 
deltoid-ovate, quite variable in size, generally 13-25 cm long, 6-15 cm broad, 2-3 pinnate under the simply 
pinnate apical part, sometimes quite simply pinnate; pinnae 8-13 pairs, alternate, petiolate, oblique, close, 
the basal pair much the largest, fully bipinnate, or pinnate in small plants, petiolulate; the ultimate pinnules 
12 cm broad, mostly fan-shaped, or subrectangular and dimidiate, cuneate, petiolulate, the outer margin 
often irregularly and deeply lobed from the circumference in the direction of the centre, the lobes obtuse 
and dentate in the sterile part, the terminal pinnule more or less fan-shaped and long-cuneate; texture thin 
herbaceous, light green, glabrous; veins distinct, with fine dichotomous veinlets, one to each tooth in the 
sterile pinnule; sor? roundish or transversely oblong, placed in roundish sinuses, one to each lobe. 
A cosmopolitan species, very variable in size, degree of pinnation and depth of segmentation of pin- 
nules. In China numerous specimens have been seen from Hopei, Shensi, Honan, Kansu and all the 
provinces south of the Yangtze southwards down to Kwangtung, and from the sea coast westwards to Sze- 
chuan and Yunnan. Also Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the Himalayas. 
A most graceful shade-loving calciphilous (lime-loving) plant, often forming large patches in dripping 
limestone nitches or crevices. Extensively grown as favourite pot plant for house decoration and conserva- 
tories. 
Plate 216. 1. Habit sketch (natural size). 2. Fertile pinna, showing the shape of indusia (X 3). 3. Sterile 
pinna, showing serrature (X 3). 4. Scale from the rhizome (X 30). 5-6. Sporangium with spores (X 100). 
7. Forma dissecta (Mart. et Galeot.) Ching (natural size). 8. Forma fissa (Christ) Ching (natural size). 
