A Dictionary of Choice Ferns. 
95 
tically all tkeir fronds. The fewer fronds removed 
the better for the general health of the plants. 
Probably no family suffers so much as Adiantum 
from this evil wrought by want of thought. 
Another point in connection with Maidenhairs 
generally is their unsuitability to withstand the 
heroic treatment meted out to them in gas-heated 
rooms by people who have not the proper means to 
recuperate them when they become exhausted. 
There is, we know, a great temptation to include 
some Adiantums in the list of room plants ; and if it 
cannot be resisted then the most enduring species 
may be found in A. cuneatum, A, c. gracillimum, and 
A, WiUiamsii. Still, we do not recommend any of the 
family as particularly well adapted for keeping even in 
rooms that are not gas-heated. Usually such places 
are far too dusty and draughty, and the temperature is 
too fluctuating to maintain the plants long in health. 
A. aemulum. 
In this species the fronds are very light and elegant in 
structure, but very dark as to colour, and freely produced 
from la close, tufted crown ; they are borne on very slender 
stalks 4in. to 5in. long, land the foliaged part at most does 
not exceed lOin. in length and is triangular in form, as 
are also the distinct lateral leaflets. These latter are also 
wedge-shaped. The sori, which number from two to four on 
each segment, are nearly round. A Brazilian species, 
suited for either stove or greenhouse, and one of the most 
useful of small-foliaged Ferns. 
A. aethiopicum. 
A species that thrives equally well in either the inter- 
mediate or the warm house. It has a very wide range, 
being found on the Cameroons, at an elevation of 7000ft., 
in Natal, Cape Colony, Bourbon, Madagascar ; also on 
the Neilgherries, in New Zealand, in tropical as in temperate 
parts of Australia; in America, from Texas and California 
southward to Valparaiso and Monte Video, &c. Its fronds, 
1ft. to l^ft. long and 6in. to 9in. broad, triangular in 
shape, three or four times divided to the midrib, are of a 
soft, herbaceous texture, and are borne on stalks Gin. to 
9in. long, produced from slender rhizomes. They are fur- 
nished with numerous leaflets, the lower ones Sin. to 4in. 
long and 2in. to 3in. broad; these are again divided into 
nearly round transparent leafits, from ^in. to Ain. across, 
