CHEILANTHES AND MAIDENHAIR. 243 
other ferns, prevent its being easily for- 
gotten. There is perhaps, no other fern 
family so sharply distinguished as the 
one to which the maidenhair belongs. 
The botanist recognises its members at a 
glance without looking at the fruit, so 
characteristic is the cutting of the fronds 
Of late years the exotic species have come 
into great favour for decorations and no 
florist considers his stock complete with- i\ 
out them. Since he isaccustomed to call uooy 
them by the generic name, the word Adz = YOUNG FRONDS. 
antum is beginning to have more meaning to the general 
public than most generic fern names. 
Soon after vegetation starts in spring, the slender 
crosiers of the maidenhair begin to appear on moist 
shaded slopes and in low woods. Before they push 
up, they are protected by many brown, hairlike scales 
and when uncoiling usually have a few scattered, light- 
coloured ones along thestipe. At first the stipes are 
covered with a bluish bloom and the immature pinne are 
of a dull red colour, imparting a not very pleasing lurid 
hue to the underwoods. At maturity stipe and rachis 
are smooth, dark and shining—among the handsomest of 
their kind. 
At the summit the stipe divides into two parts, each 
of which makes a sort of half circle away from the other 
and nearly at right angles to the direction of the stipe. 
The pinne grow from the upper or outer sides of what 
may thus be called thetworachids. The pair nearest the 
forks are the largest, often a foot long and two inches 
wide, and the others gradually decrease in size making 
the outline of the whole frond nearly circular. The 
