MAIDENHAIR 



native states. Later their power was broken 

 by the British, to whom they now owe alle- 

 giance. They number over 18,000,000. 



MAIDENHAIR, ma' den hair, a class of ferns 

 whose graceful and delicate fronds make a 

 beautiful covering of green on damp rocks and 

 crumbling walls. The plant is so called from 

 the delicacy of its stalks. It is widely distrib- 

 uted in temperate and tropical regions. From 

 the sweet, fragrant rootstock of the maidenhair 

 of North America is made a syrup called capil- 

 laire. Several species are popular ferns in hot- 

 houses. See FERNS. 



MAIN, the largest eastern tributary of the 

 River Rhine, has its source in the Fichtelge- 



MAINE 



birge, a mountain range in Northern Bavaria. 

 The stream angles like the letter S twice re- 

 peated, until it empties into the Rhine near the 

 city of Mainz. It has a total length of 307 

 miles, and under favorable conditions is navi- 

 gable to the point where it joins the Regnitz 

 River, 205 miles from its mouth. Its winding 

 course, however, and its numerous shoals, 

 greatly lessen its commercial value, and during 

 dry seasons it is used only by barges, small 

 boats and lumber rafts. Between Mainz and 

 Frankfort it has been converted into a canal 

 on which vessels having a capacity of 1,000 tons 

 may sail. By means of the Ludwig Canal it is 

 joined to the Danube River. 



AINE, mane, the most northeast- 

 erly state of the American Union, the largest of 

 the New England group. It is popularly known 

 as the PINE TREE STATE, because of the great 

 evergreen forests which cover over three-fourths 

 of its area. As its flower, Maine has appro- 

 priately chosen the pine cone. Although it is 

 the youngest of the Atlantic coast states, hav- 

 ing been a part of Massachusetts until 1820, 

 within its present limits were one of the ear- 

 liest colonies and the first incorporated town of 

 America. 



Size and Location. Lying adjacent to the 

 Canadian provinces of Quebec on the north- 

 west and New Brunswick on the northeast and 

 east, and having the Atlantic Ocean for its 

 southern boundary, Maine touches only one of 

 the states of the Union New Hampshire on 

 the west. The state, over 300 miles long and 

 185 miles wide, is in shape an irregular quad- 

 rilateral. It is nearly as large as the other five 

 New England states combined, and is one and 

 one-half times the size of Nova Scotia. With 

 an area of 33,040 square miles, of which 3,145 

 square miles are water, Maine ranks thirty- 

 eighth among the states in size, and fifth in 

 extent of water surface. 



Its People. The population of Maine is 

 mixed, the foreign-born inhabitants, chiefly 

 French and English Canadians, numbering 



110,562, or about one-seventh of the total popu- 

 lation of 742,371 (in 1910). Since the admis^ 

 sion of Maine as a state, the number of its 

 inhabitants has increased about two and one- 

 half times; from 1900 to 1910 the increase was 

 6.1 per cent, the population averaging 24.8 per 

 square mile. January 1, 1917, the number of 

 inhabitants was estimated at 774,914. This in- 

 crease has been due largely to the immigration 

 of aliens. In 1915, 4401 immigrants from 

 Europe reported Maine as their destination. 



The early settlers of Maine were of good 

 English stock, and their descendants and those 

 of colonists of neighboring New England states 

 form the larger part of the present population. 

 In the northern section of the state there is a 

 strong French element, chiefly of Acadian 

 stock. A colony of Swedes settled in the north- 

 east in 1870, and a large settlement of Germans 

 was made at Waldboro during the early colo- 

 nization of Maine. Several hundred Indians, 

 remnants of the Penobscot, Wawenock and 

 Passamaquoddy tribes, the original inhabitants 

 of Maine, still make their home in the state. 

 They are civilized, are occupied in farming 

 and in making Indian souvenirs, and, are also 

 employed as guides to hunters and tourists. 

 The number of rural and urban inhabitants is 

 about equal, there being about fifty-six per cent 

 of the population living in towns. Portland, 



