THE ANNUAL MAIDENHAIR. 



Maidenhair requires exceptional care ; but do not 

 forget that for all the care which you bestow upon 

 it, it will repay you by assuming in its adopted 

 home the freshest and most delicate shade of de- 

 lightful green, and the most delicate of graceful 

 forms. 



7. 



THE ANNUAL MAIDENHAIR. 



Gi/mnogramma leptophylla. 



|OME general resemblance to the True 

 Maidenhair in the arrangement of 

 frond and leaflet, has entitled the 

 Slender Gymnogram to the name of ' The Annual 

 Maidenhair.' But this very pretty plant is dis- 

 tinguished from all our British Ferns by the short 

 period of its existence springing up and dying 

 within the year. A tiny thing it is, only three or 

 four inches in length, its fronds rising from a 

 tufted root-stock, their leafy parts being longer 

 than their stems, which are of a brownish colour, 

 and smooth. The fronds on the same plant are 

 graduated in length, preserving no regular shape ; 



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