4 TRUE MAIDEN HAIR. 



attended to, and, under favourable circumstances, no 

 fern can rival it in delicacy and brilliancy of foliage. 

 Dr. Ball pointed out to Mr. Newman a curious pro- 

 perty possessed by this fern when growing in a Ward's 

 case, without communication with the external air. 

 The sori under these conditions will vegetate in situ, 

 and the young plants take root like parasites in the 

 substance of the old one. 



The soil in which the Maiden Hair is best 

 grown is a mixture of loam, leaf-mould, and silver 

 sand, mixed with small pieces of sandstone or free- 

 stone. It looks very pretty in a hanging basket or 

 cocoa-nut shell, or growing between two large shells 

 of the Pecten kind, filled with soil and moss, and 

 suspended by wire, in the inside of a conservatory 

 or Ward's case. The fronds resist water, or are so 

 smooth that it always runs from them ; so that 

 Pliny says, " In vain you plunge it in water, you 

 cannot wet it." 



