CRYPTOGAMIA-FILICES. Woodsia. 321 



A. n. 1713. Hall. Hist. V. 3. 17. 



A. foliis coi-iandri, Bauh. Pin. 355. Moris, v. 3. 587. sect .\4.t. 5. 



f.6. 

 A. magnum. Trag. Hist. 531. f. 

 A. nigrum. Cord. Hist, \72.f. 

 A. candidum. Fuchs. Ic. 46. f. 

 Adiantum. Fuchs. Hist. 82./. Matih.Falgr.v.2.542.f. Camer. 



Epit. 924. f. Dalech. Hist. 1 208. /. 

 A. sive Capillus Veneris. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 743. f. 744. Lob. 



Ic. 809./. 

 Capillus Veneris verus. Dill, in Raii Syn. 123. Ger. Em, 1 143./. 



On moist rocks and old walls, especially near the sea, but rare. 



At Barry island, and port Kirig, Glamorganshire. Mr. Lhwijd. 

 In the isle of Arran, near Galloway. Mr. Stonestreet, according 

 toSherard's herbarium. Gathered in the south islands of Arran 

 in 1805, by Mr. J. T. Mackoy. Found by Prof. Beattie on the 

 banks of the Carron, a rivulet in Kincardineshire. Hooker. 



Perennial. May — September. 



A most elegant fern, especially when it projects from the sides 

 of upright dripping rocks, or caves. The root is slightly creep- 

 ing, blackish, shaggy. Fronds from six to twelve inches high, 

 rarely more in this country, erect or drooping, alternately and 

 doubly pinnate ; their stalks slender, of a purplish black, smooth 

 and polished ; the ultimate ones quite capillary, whence the 

 name of Maidenhair, and of Capillary Herbs, subsequently ex- 

 tended to this whole Natural Order. Leaflets deep green, smooth, 

 wedge- or fan -shaped, very various in width ; the base entire ; 

 upper, or outer, margin variously jagged and lobed ; when bar- 

 ren sharply serrated ; when fertile, as is most usual, each seg- 

 ment terminates in a roundish, reflexed, flat, brown scale, thin 

 and pale at its edges, sometimes broader than long, usually sup- 

 posed to cover the fructification seated on the frond ; but Dr. 

 Swartz first observed each round mass of capsules to be actually 

 borne by the central part of this scale, or cover, underneath. 



One species of this genus, A.pedatum, is principally used, in the 

 south of France, to make a syrup, which being perfumed with 

 orange flowers, is called Capillaire, and known by that name 

 throughout Europe, as a refreshing beverage when diluted with 

 water. Ray in \\\s Historia,v. 1. 147, 148, attributes almost 

 every possible medical virtue to the Capillus Veneris, (probably 

 confounded with A.pedatum,) on the authority of a Montpellier 

 physician. 



471. WOODSIA. Woodsia. 



Br. Tr. of Linn. Sac. u. 1 1 . 1 70. Sm. Comp. ed. 4. 1 68. 

 Nat. Ord. see n. 463. 



VOL. IV. Y 



