344 FERNS. 



This region is specially the home of the most 

 charming genus of the whole order, filicum facile 

 princeps, the Maiden-hair, Adiantum. The pretty 

 and delicate A. continuum, resembling, and even 

 almost rivalling, our own capillus Veneris, droops its 

 pellucid fronds, tinged with pale red, from the rocks ; 

 and the sweet Venus-hair itself is a native of the 

 island, though confined, I helieve, to its sea-side 

 caves, from whose dripping walls, as in that one at 

 Pedro Bluff, accessible only at certain states of the 

 tide, it hangs over the mouldering bones of Indian 

 aborigines, who found a last refuge from tyranny in 

 those dreary retreats. A. tenerum, a Fern still more 

 closely like it, but with smaller pinnae and a wider 

 frond, is a common form in these dewy mountain 

 glades ; and we find in special abundance A . striatum, 

 growing in rich green tufts from every crack and 

 cleft, and from the rough bark of the old trees, the 

 fronds displaying their long, taper pinnae, closely 

 studded with their multitudinous pinnules symmetri- 

 cally crowded. 



Nor are wanting other kinds, of greater majesty, if 

 of inferior grace. A . intermedium has a fine bold frond, 

 beset with many pinnules of long, pointed form, which 

 bear the dark sori conspicuous along the edges ; A . obli- 

 quum is somewhat like it, but simply pinnate ; and A . 

 lucidum, whose leaflets, dark green and richly polished, 

 are drawn out to longer points. A. trapeziforme is a 

 noble yet very elegant species, rearing its wide but 

 loose leaves to the height of eighteen inches over the 



