342 KILICES. AdiuHtum. 



8. ADIANTUM, Liuu. iMaidkniiaiu. 

 Sporangia boiiic at tlio ends of tlio veiiilcts, on tlio iiiulcr (inner) siile of tliu re- 

 flexed margin of the frond, the involucre thus formed being cither continuous or 

 interrupted or divided into small and widely separated lobules. Midvein of the 

 ultimate pinnules mostly excentric or lateral, or the forking and usually free veinlets 

 rising directly from the entl of the petiolule of the segments. Stalk mostly black- 

 ened or very dark purplish-brown, and commonly higbly polished. 



Sixty-seven species are described by Keyseiling, in liis exct-llent nionognii)li on tliis genus, |mb- 

 lished in Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petersb. vii°" serie, tome xxii, No. 2. A tew tropical si)ecies have 

 simple roundish I'londs, others are simply pinnate, and the remainder are variously 2- 4-j)innate 

 or ilecompound, but never dissected into narrow segments. 



* Fronds pyramidal in outline, 2 - -i-pintiate at the b(tse ; main rhacfiis continu- 

 ous to the apical ijinnule : veins dichotonious, the veinlets extendinc/ to the ends 

 of the teeth of the segments. 



1. A. Capillus-Veneris, Linn. (Venus-IIaiu.) Plant 4 to 24 inches high, 

 often jtendeut : htalks and rhachises very slender, nearly black, polished : fronds 

 elongated-pyramidal, thin, smooth, simi)ly pinnate towanls the ajiex, ll - 3-i)innate 

 below; ])innules and n])per pinn;e rather long-stalked, G to 15 lines long, rhomboid 

 or roundish-obovate, euuiiate at the ba.se, .somewhat i>almately lobed or inci.sed ; the 

 ends of the lobes crenately or acutely d(Miticulat(! except where the nuirgin is recurveil 

 to form the lunulate or transversely oblong separated involucres, — Hooker, Ihiti.sli 

 Ferns, t. 41 ; luiton. Kerns of N! Amer. i. 281, t. 37. 



Damp and shady jilaces in the canons of the southern part of the State (O. W. Dunn, Mr--. 

 Cooper, Mrs. IUkjij, Dr. Ildl/irock), and eastward to Utah, Texas, Missouri, and tlie Atlantic 

 •States from Virginia to Florida. Also in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, etc. ; a well- 

 known plant, formerly used in i)reparing "Sirop de Capillaire," a poi)nlar cough-renu-dy. 



2. A. emarginatum, Hooker. Plant a few inches to two feet high, usually 

 erect : stalks rather stnuter than in the last, nearly black, polished, about half the 

 Avhole height of the plant : fronds broadly ovate or deltoid-pyramidal, simply pinnate 

 towards the apex, 2-3-pinnate below; pinm\3 obli(pudy spreading, lower ones half 

 as long as the frond; pinnules long-stalked, 4 to 15 lines broad, roundish or semi- 

 circular or even reniform, the lower siiles entire, the outer edge rounded, slightly 

 2-5-lobed, Hnely and sharply toothed in the sterile fronds, but in the fertile re- 

 curved and forming pale transversely elongated invohicres. — Sp. Fil. ii, t. 75, A ; 

 Keyserling, 1. c. 15, 37; Eaton, Ferns of the Southwest, 325, and Ferns of N. 

 Amer. i. 285, t. 38, fig. 1-3. A. Chilense of American authors, not of Kaulfuss. 

 A. jEthiopicnm, in part, Baker, Syn. Fil. 123. 



Among rocks in canons, botli dry and moist, common in the Coast Ranges from San Diego to 

 Oregon, but .scarcely known in the Sierra Nevada. Key.serling has well di.stingnislud this species 

 from the others related to it. Hooker's figure, although said to be taken from a Mauritius plant, 

 well represents only our species, and was ])robably drawn from a Califoinian siiecinien. A jiubes- 

 cent Adiantuin (A. dilntalam, Nnft. MS. in Herb. Hook.), rejiortetl from near Monterey by Nut- 

 tall, has not been collected since his tinn- : it may have been A. triilinlrjii'i, l-'ee (Kalon, Ferns of 

 the Southwest, 320), or a hairy form of the present species, or something dill'ercnt from both. 



* * Fronds rounded-fan-shaped In outline, the stalk forlcinfj at the top, the forks 



recurred and each bearing several pinnate branches on the itj/jier side. 



3. A. pedatutn, Linn. Stalks dark-brown or blackish, polished, a foot or more 

 high, forkeil at the top, the two branches divaricate and obliquely recurved, bearing 

 on their upper or outer sides 6 to 14 long spreading pinnate divisions: pinnules 

 numerous, short-stalked, thin, smooth, oblong or triangular-oblong, the lower margin 

 entire and often hollowed out, the lia.se j)arallcl with the iiolislunl hair-like rhachis, 



. the upper margin lobed or cleft and bearing a few oblong-lunate or transvcr.scly 



