106 FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



the fertile lobes are turned under, and thus form a mem- 

 brane-like indusium to the clusters of fructification. 

 The stalk is usually about half the length of the frond, 

 and is glossy black, or deep purple. The veins in aU 

 the pinnules are two-branched or forked from the base, 

 the branches extending in straight Unes to the margins, 

 where in the barren fronds they end in the marginal 

 notches. In the fertile fronds, however, they extend 

 into the indusium, and become the receptacle for the 

 clusters. 



The bright cheerful evergreen tint, the elegant form 

 and Hghtly waving attitudes of this fern, render it very 

 attractive ; and when growing against the sides of the 

 sea-rock or other moist place in any abundance, no 

 fern exceeds it in beauty. Sir WUham Hooker remarks, 

 that this most delicate plant is very abundant in the 

 south of Europe, where he has seen it lining the inside 

 of wells, as it does the basin of the fountain at Vaucluse, 

 with a tapestry of the tenderest green. It grows some- 

 times even on rocks washed occasionally by the spray. 

 It is not a Scottish fern, but occurs on the south and 

 west coasts of Ireland in great luxuriance. It is also 

 plentiful in some spots in Wales, but the only English 

 counties in which it is to be found are those of Cornwall 

 and Devonshire. Mr. N. B. Ward sent specimens of 

 the Maiden-hair to Mr. Newman from the neighbour- 

 hood of Ilfracombe, where he found it growing in great 

 beauty on the face of the crevices of a rock in White 

 Pebble Bay, in a dense mass, which commenced at the 

 height of about twenty-five feet, and descended to within 

 about five feet of the level of the sea. It prefers a per- 



