146 ENGLISH BOTAXY. 



divided is the lamina. In the thick stipes the vascular bundle is 

 very conspicuous, and has been fancied to represent a spread eagle ; 

 whence the name ' aquilina.' Others have seen in it a resemblance 

 to an oak-tree, and the section is spoken of as ' King Charles in 

 the oak.' 



Mr. Francis Darwin has observed glands secreting nectar at the 

 base of the branches of the rachis ; these glands cease to secrete 

 when the frond is mature (Journ. Linn. Soc, vol. ii. p. 407). 



Mr. Moore distinguishes a variety integerrima, in which the 

 secondary pinnules instead of being deeply pinnatifid are nearly 

 entire, but this seems to be the effect of growing in poor soil. 



Seedling plants have the frond much thinner in texture, and the 

 ultimate pinnules roundish-ovate and crenate ; and the same form of 

 the plant has been found on walls. 



Pt. aquilina is remarkable for the rudimentary state of the 

 lamina when the fronds first emerge from the ground, but the 

 after development is very rapid. 



Bracken or Brake-Fern or Common Brakes. 



Tribe YII.— ADIANTEJE. 



Caudex not growing in advance of the fronds, the stipes of which 

 is not articulated to the caudex and does not separate from it. Sori 

 punctiform or transversely oblong, on the apex of the veins upon a 

 portion of the frond which is bent over, forming a false indusium, 

 with the sori on the inner surface, but there is no true indusium. 



GENUS X VIII.— & D I A N T U M . Lin 



n. 



Fronds produced near the apex of the rootstock, approximate or 

 distant, coriaceous or herbaceous, simple pinnate or decompound ; 

 ultimate pinnules or segments commonly without a midrib or with 

 a very eccentric one. Veins forked, free. Sporangia attached to 

 the extremity of the veins on the renexed flaps of the margins of 

 the frond, which form false indusia. 



Xame from aZiavTov (adianton), a plant called Maidenhair. 



SPECIES I.-ADIANTUM CAPILLUS - VENERIS. Linn. 



Plate 1887. 

 Babenh. Crypt. Yasc. Europ. Expicc. No. 11. 



Rootstock creeping, rather slender, densely scaly; scales yellowish, 

 subulate, acuminated into slender points. Fronds subsolitary. Stipes 



