4 6 
European Ferns. 
proportionately large in all their parts. These authors refer also to a very remarkable 
variety collected by them in the fountain of Callirhoe, at Athens. This plant, although fully 
developed, was not more than two or three inches in height ; the pinnules were small and hardly 
emarginate; and the variety greatly resembled A. cethiopicum in general appearance. Its extra- 
European distribution extends throughout the temperate and subtropical regions of the globe, 
especially in the northern hemisphere, it being less abundant within the Tropics. In Asia, we 
find the Maidenhair occurring in Siberia and in the Caucasus, in Arabia and Syria (Jerusalem, 
Sinai, and Galilee), in China and Japan, and throughout the damp hilly districts of India. It 
is very abundant in the African islands, occurring in Madagascar and Mauritius, the Azores, the 
Cape de Verde Islands, in Madeira and the Canaries ; in the two last it is exceedingly common, 
growing wherever water trickles through the rocks, and affecting especially the vertical surface 
of walls, which are sometimes entirely covered with it. In the Canaries large porous vases, for 
the purpose of cooling and filtering the water supplied by the aqueducts, are almost indispensable 
to every household ; and these vases are often entirely covered with Maidenhair, presenting a 
very beautiful appearance. So readily is the fern established in this situation that the inha- 
bitants, wishing to encourage its growth upon new vases, find it sufficient to rub them over with 
the mature spore-bearing fronds, after which young plants are not long in making their appear- 
ance. On the African continent it occurs in Algiers, Abyssinia, and Egypt, and also in South 
Africa — in Natal and at Algoa Bay. In Australasia the plant is found in Queensland, and also 
in New Caledonia and the Sandwich Islands. In the New World it occurs in Mexico and 
other parts of Central America, in Chili, and in the West Indies; and also in the southern 
United States — Florida, Alabama, and westward. 
In the British Islands, the distribution of the Maidenhair is distinctly of a western 
type. In England its headquarters are in the counties of Devon and Cornwall, in which 
it occurs in many localities, affecting low sea caves and the clefts of coast rocks ; it was 
formerly abundant in the neighbourhood of Ilfracombe, but of late years has become very 
scarce there, and can only be obtained if the collector is sufficiently enthusiastic to allow 
himself to be let down over the cliffs by a rope. We do not think it advisable to 
give detailed descriptions of the localities recorded for this beautiful fern, which is already in 
danger of becoming exterminated, owing to the ravages of collectors, if, indeed, it has not 
already disappeared from some of its localities. It has also occurred in Dorset, and is recorded 
for North Somerset, although this is doubtful, as it is said that the leaves of a flowering plant, 
Thalictrnm saxatile, have been mistaken for it at Cheddar. On the coast of Glamorganshire, it 
is, or was, abundant ; there is a specimen in the British Museum Herbarium, collected in 
June, 1773, at Cardiff, from “a cliff called Nine-acre Cliff, half a mile from Porth Kerrig 
Church, in the face next the sea, where a petrifying water falls down, generally in places not 
accessible without much difficulty.” On some parts of the Glamorganshire coast it grows very 
luxuriously, forming a green tapestry on the face of the cliff, and sometimes within reach of the 
spray. It has long been known as growing in the Isle of Man: other English counties have 
been recorded for it, but its occurrence in them has not been authenticated, and it is stated 
that in more than one instance young plants of the Bracken have been mistaken for the 
Maidenhair ! It is, apparently, absent from Scotland, although it has been recorded from one 
or two stations in that country. In Ireland it is very local, occurring chiefly, if not entirely, 
in the West ; the Isle of Arran and the Burren mountains are its oldest and best known 
localities, it having been recorded from Arran by Lhwyd previous to 1699. It has also occurred 
in various places of the county Clare, from Connemara, and Sligo ; and it is reported to have 
