Adiantum. 
47 
been found in a cave near the Giants’ Causeway, Antrim. The Maidenhair of Burren and 
Arran is very luxuriant, and often has the pinnules more deeply cut than in the ordinary form 
of the species; the figure in “English Botany” (/. 1564) is from an Arran specimen. 
In his “ Nature-printed Ferns,” Mr. T. Moore distinguishes three varieties of the Maiden- 
hair as occurring in the United Kingdom. The first, ramulosmn, has the main rachis divided 
two or three times near the top, so that the apex of the frond is formed of a spreading tuft 
of short pinnate branches. The second, incisum, has both the barren and fertile pinnules 
throughout the frond somewhat regularly split down into long, narrow, wedge-shaped lobes. 
The third, rotun datum, is marked by the outline of the basal pinnules being rounder than 
usual, with a truncate base \ the fronds are narrow, and the pinnae more spreading. There is 
a specimen in the British Museum Herbarium, descended from a plant collected at Boscastle, 
North Cornwall, which is apparently to be referred to the last-named variety ; in this the 
pinnules are broader than long, and the whole aspect is very luxuriant— a circumstance probably 
owing to cultivation, at any rate in some degree. 
O11 the faith of a statement in the “ Synopsis Filicum,” we had originally included in a list 
of European ferns A. cethiopicum, Linn., of which a figure will be found on plate 6. There 
is a specimen in the Kew Herbarium labelled “Spain, G. McLeay, i860;” and this caused the 
insertion of the species in the “ Synopsis ” as a European plant ; but it is not included in 
Willkomm and Lange’s “ Prodromus Florae Hispanicae,” and there is thus reason to suppose 
some mistake in the matter. A. cethiopicum is a plant resembling A. Capillus-veneris in its wide 
extra-European distribution, and also resembling it very strongly in general appearance. Sir 
W. J. Hooker, however, says it is “ truly and constantly distinct : firstly, in the more orbicular 
and less sharply and gradually attenuated base of the pinnules ; and, secondly, in the fructi- 
fication, the sori here being placed in the sinus of a notch in the lobe, and the involucres 
quite broad, lunate, or veniform, not occupying the whole apex of the lobe.” As has been 
mentioned above, with regard to the plant collected by Chaubard and Bory at Athens, 
A. Capillus-veneris sometimes approaches A. cethiopicum very closely ; but the two species are 
usually considered distinct by the best authorities on the subject. 
The Maidenhair has in I 1 ' ranee acquired some little importance from its employment in the 
manufacture of a syrup known, from the Latin name of the plant, as capillaire, which has been 
supposed to possess pectoral qualities, and, when diluted with water, forms a very refreshing 
drink. It was formerly prepared by adding sugar and orange-flower water to an infusion of the 
fern ; but as the Maidenhair was found to serve no essential purpose, it is frequently omitted 
and, according to Pereira, the syrup sold in the shops under the name of capillaire is nothing but 
clarified syrup flavoured with orange-flower water. The Prussian and Hamburgh Pharmacopeias 
authorise this substitution by giving formulae for a sympus jlorce aurantii, to be used “in loco 
sympi capillorum veneris.” A recipe for making capillaire runs thus : Take of Maidenhair leaves 
five ounces; liquorice-root, peeled and sliced, two ounces; boiling water, five pints: let them 
remain for six hours ; strain, and then add thirteen pounds of the finest loaf sugar, and one 
pint of orange-flower water. The simple infusion of the plant in water, sweetened in the manner 
of tea, has been recommended for the same purposes as the syrup. 
From some of the earlier Irish floras it would appear that the collecting of Maidenhair for 
the preparation of capillaire was at one time very extensively carried on. Thus Keogh, in his 
“ Botanologia Universalis Hibernica” (1735), says of it: “The best in this kingdom is brought 
from the rocky mountains of Burren, in the county of Clare, where it grows plentifully; from 
thence it is brought in sacks to Dublin, and sold there:” and he goes on to narrate its virtues, 
