A DIANTUM. 
43 
the same cold killed all the plants of A. Capillus-veneris. The young fronds are 
delicate, and, coming up early, those first appearing are not unfrequently cut with spring 
frosts.” It has been in cultivation in this country for a long period, having been introduced 
by the younger Tradescaut before 1640. From an old specimen in the British Museum 
Herbarium, collected in the “Cherokee country” in 1769, we learn that its Indian name 
is Outoanaka, which means “ black stalk.” 
In the section of which our British Maidenhair may be taken as the type, there is one 
plant which has of late years attracted much attention, and which indeed is at the present 
time perhaps the most popular form in cultivation. This is the very beautiful A. FarUyense , 
which Mr. Moore, who first described it, well calls “one of the most graceful species yet 
known of perhaps the most lovely genus of the pre-eminently lovely family of ferns.” It 
was first exhibited at a show of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1865, and at once 
attracted great attention. Its origin is a little obscure, and its claims to specific rank are 
not admitted by the best authorities on ferns, in spite of its extremely distinct appear- 
ance.- The first example came up among some ferns sent from the West Indies by 
Mr. T. G. Briggs, of Barbadoes, the name of whose residence in that- island (Farley Hill) is 
commemorated in the specific title of the plant. So far as we are aware, the fern has 
not been met with in a wild state; and Mr. Moore regards it as a well-marked “sport” of 
A. tenerum , or possibly a hybrid between that species and A. trapeziforme. It has, how- 
ever, since been stated that seedlings of A. Far/eyense have produced another species, 
