244 



CHEILANTHES AND MAIDENHAIR. 



pinnae are broadest about the middle and are again pin, 

 nate, with a large number of alternating, slender-stalked, 

 lobed or toothed pinnules, which are peculiar for being 

 one sided, the " midrib " running along 

 the lower margin. These pinnules af- 

 ford excellent examples of the charac- 

 teristic veining of the fern tribe. 



The rootstock is found just at the 

 surface of the earth. It is 

 slender, widely creeping 

 an( ] branches freely, giving 

 off numerous black, wiry 

 roots. Fresh fronds are 

 produced all summer and 

 the little colonies of the plants 

 form light, open clumps. Where 

 the blade joins the stipe, there is 

 a sharp bend which causes the 

 frond to hang downward until ex- 

 panded. Nearly every frond is 

 fertile. The sori are scattered 

 along the outer margins and are 

 covered with a rather conspicuous 

 gray indusium formed by the 

 reflexed and altered segments of the pinnules. 



It is said that this species and Cystopteris bulbifera 

 were the first American ferns to be taken to England. 

 Until the time of Linnaeus it was known as Adiantum 

 Canadense. The present specific name is said to be de- 

 rived from the branching rootstock, but another deriva- 

 tion is given in an old English book which speaks of our 

 plant as the " foot-shaped Canadian maiden hair." 

 Some of the pinnules are certainly not very unlike the 



MAIDENHAIR FERN. 

 Adiantum pedatunt. 



