IV F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 

 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 



The Brake turns brown in autumn, but does not 

 wither away till the following year. 



21. MAIDENHAIR 



Adiantum pedatum 



Nova Scotia to British Columbia, south to Georgia and Arkansas, 

 in moist woods. Ten to eighteen inches high. 



Fronds. Forked at the summit of the slender black and pol- 

 ished stalk, the recurved branches bearing on one side several 

 slender, spreading pinnate divisions ; pinnules obliquely triangular- 

 oblong ; sporangia in short fruit-dots on the under margin of a lobe 

 of the frond ; indusium formed by the reflexed lobe or tooth of the 

 frond. 



For purposes of identification it would seem 

 almost superfluous to describe the Maidenhair, a 



plant which probably is more 

 generally appreciated than 

 all the rest of the ferns to- 

 gether. Yet, strangely 

 enough, it is confused con- 

 stantly with other plants and 

 with plants which are not 

 ferns. 



Perhaps the early meadow rue 

 is the plant most commonly mis- 

 taken for the Maidenhair. While 

 it does not suggest strikingly our 



A pinna of Maidenhair , & J 



eastern fern, its lobed and rounded 

 leaflets bear a likeness to certain species native to 

 other parts of the country, notably to A. Capillus- 



Veneris, the Venus-hair Fern of the southern States. 



1 08 



