ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES. 



ENGLISH MAIDEN-HAIR ; DWARF SPLEENWORT. 



NATURAL ORDER, FILICES. (Polypodiace^:.) 



Asplenium Trichomanes, Linnaeus. — Frond pinnate ; leaflets roundish, subsessile, small, 

 roundish-obovate, obtusely cuneate and entire at base, crenate above ; stipe black and 

 polished; frond three to six inches high, lance-linear in outline, with eight to twelve pairs 

 of roundish, sessile leaflets, three to four lines long; fruit in several linear-oblong, finallj 

 roundish sori on each leaflet, placed oblique to the mid-vein. A small and delii 

 forming tufts on shady rocks. (Wood's Class-Book of Botany. See also Gray's Manual 

 of the Botany of the Northern United States.) 



HIS plant is not only a native of the United States, but 

 is quite as much at home in Old England, to whose 

 people it was known as " English Maiden-Hail-, ,, at a time when 

 botany was still in its infancy, and had scarcely grown to the 

 dignity of a science. The specific designation of " English " 

 was applied to it to distinguish it from the Adiantum Capillus 

 Veneris, which was called the " True Maiden-Hair." Even in 

 those early times, however, Latin and Greek names were given 

 to plants besides their common names; and whenever the plants 

 mentioned by the ancients could be identified, the appellations 

 used by them were adopted. But when no ancient name existed 

 a new one was created, and thus our pretty little fern came to 

 be called Trichomanes, from two Greek words, signifying "soft 

 hair." It was also named Capillaris and Filicula, both of which 

 words convey a somewhat similar meaning, but TricJioiuancs 

 carried the day against them. Linnaeus, therefore, found this 

 name in use when he commenced to build up modern botany. 

 But at the "same time he found other ferns, which were called 

 Asplenium, or Spleen wort ; and as he conceived Tric/wmanes 



