70 



June and becoming disfigured by the first morning frosts of the 

 autumn. It grows freely under cultivation, whether planted in 

 pots or among rock-work, and I have found it succeed in several 

 different soils, though never better than when planted on the 

 margin of a gravel-walk, among the pebbles of which some of the 

 finest tufts were produced. For potted specimens, light sandy 

 peat, with a small quantity of old mortar, and fragments of slate, 

 limestone, or granite, the first especially placed vertically through- 

 out the soil, will be most available, when associated with a copious 

 supply of water and as free drainage during the growing season. 

 Exposure to the sun should be guarded against, as though not 

 necessarily fatal to the fern, it is to the lucid green colour that 

 constitutes its chief beauty. 



Genus 13. ADIANTUM. 



GEN. CHAR. Sori roundish, growing from the extremities of the 

 veins on the under face of the reflexed margin of the frond, 

 the epidermis of which is prolonged over them in the form of 

 an indusium. 



Adiantum is an extensive genus, containing about seventy known 

 species, of which the greater number are tropical. The fronds are 

 generally of a veiy delicate, almost membranaceous texture, espe- 

 cially those which are much divided : they have a peculiarly slen- 

 der, hair-like, and elastic rachis, which, being usually of a dark- 

 purple or blackish hue, occasions many of the species to rank among 

 the most elegant of the fern tribe, as the thin bright-green pinnules 

 seem to be suspended in the air. They all delight in shade and 

 moisture, growing almost exclusively in the damp arid dark crevices 

 of rocks, among trickling streams, and in the depths of tropical 

 forests where the atmosphere is constantly loaded with moisture. 

 A. pedatum in North America, and A. Cajnllus-Veneris in Europe, 

 are the only species met with extending naturally into cold climates. 



The European species was named dbiavrov by the Greeks, from 

 a&iavTos, dry, because the foliage repels water, and is with diffi- 

 culty wetted. 



ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS. Maiden- Hair. TAB. XL. 



Fronds deltoid, lax. bi-tripinnate : pinnules stalked, rhomboidal- 

 wedge-shaped, lobed, alternate. Fertile lobes reflexed, forming 

 transversely oblong indusium-like folds covering several roundish 

 sori : barren lobes serrated. 



Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, Linnaus. E. B. 1564. Generally 

 adopted. 



The common or true Maiden-hair is unquestionably a wanderer 



