ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS. 



®0Mmkal l\m. 



Sir J. E. Smith has the following remark upon the uses of a 

 species of Adiantum : — " One species of this genus, A. peda- 

 tum, 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." — Eng. Flor. iv. 308. The 

 species alluded to must be Capillus-Veneris, and not pedatum, 

 the latter being exclusively North American. We are told by 

 Bulliard, in his work on the medicinal plants of France (under 

 tab. 247), that it is known in the shops by the name of " Capil- 

 laire de Montpellier," but no mention is made of its use as an 

 ingredient of the syrup called capillaire, though the author adds 

 that it is frequently used in medicine. However, the statement 

 of Sir J. E. Smith, to which I have alluded above, occurs in 

 the ' Flore Frangaise ' (ii. 549), where it is said to be commonly 

 known under the names of " capillaire, capillaire de Montpel- 

 Her, cheveux de Venus ; " and that with it the syrup of capil- 

 laire is prepared. Dr. Ball, of Dublin, informs me that the in- 

 habitants of Arran use a decoction of the leaves instead of tea. 



The medicinal properties of the true Maidenhair have been 

 much extolled. Ray, in his ' History of Plants ' (i. 147), gives 

 a very detailed account of its wonderful virtues, and gives it too 

 with all the gravity of implicit faith. His catalogue of diseases 

 curable by preparations of this fern, seems to include nearly 

 all " the ills that flesh is heir to : " for his information on this 

 head, our illustrious countryman acknowledges his obligations 

 to one Dr. Peter Formius, a Frenchman, who really appears 

 to have considered the plant a universal panacea. Still older 

 writers also bear testimony to its powers ; and Tragus, after 

 enumerating sundry of its virtues, boasts of prudently omitting 

 some of the uses to which it has been applied, as unworthy of 

 Christian men : (Hieron, 533). It must, however, be borne in 

 mind, that there is a great want of precision in the distinction 

 of species in most of the earlier works, and that other species, 

 more particularly Asplenium Trichomanes and A. Ruta-mura- 

 ria, were confounded with the present under the common name 

 ot Adiantum, or, in England, oi Maidenhair ; neither should it 



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