A DIANTUM. 
49 
to our Maidenhair, although he speaks of a use of the plant which accords well with that to 
which our species is supposed to owe its name. He says that a decoction of it was made in 
wine with parsley-seed for the purpose of imparting colour to the hair, large quantities of oil 
being added if it is desired to make the hair thick and curly as well ; and he also attributes to 
it the property of preventing the hair from coming off. The black, hair-like stalks of our British 
plant probably suggested its name Capillus-veneris , as well as its English equivalent ; and its 
supposed efficacy in restoring the hair is likely enough to have been suggested, on the “ doctrine 
of signatures,” by the same circumstance. Coles, writing in 1657, says : “ The lye wherein 
Maidenhaire is sodden or infused is good to bathe the head, and make the liaire come thicker in 
those places which are more thin and bare.” The subject of our present description is here referred 
to ; but various other plants have been called Maidenhair from time to time, among them the 
pretty yellow Bog Asphodel ( Narthecium ossifragum), of which Johnson writes in 1636: “In 
Lancashire [it] is used by women to die their haire of a yellowish colour, and therefore by them 
it is termed Maiden-haire ; ” while the pretty Lady’s Bedstraw ( Galium veruni) was also called 
Maidenhair — according to Coles, “ from the fineness of the leaves.” 
Gerard seems to look upon the Maidenhair fern as one of the plants formerly named in 
commemoration of the Blessed Virgin, and says “ it maybe called Our Lady’s Hair;” but the Latin 
name suggests that it was rather dedi- 
cated to Venus. As we shall see when 
we come to speak of Asplenium Tricho- 
inancs, that species has also been termed 
Maidenhair; and it is with this that 
Mrs. Chanter (in “ Lerny Combes”) as- 
sociates a German legend which she 
does not definitely localise, and which 
has rather a modern sound. She says : 
“ A lady was keeping tryst with her 
lover, when he was suddenly, after the 
fashion of Germany in those days, trans- 
formed into a wolf. The lady fled before 
him, and in her haste fell over a preci- 
pice, her black hair tangling in the 
bushes as she descended. On the spot 
where she fell a clear spring welled up, 
and round about her hair took root. The well is called ‘the Wolf’s Spring,’ and the little 
custodian of the glen, after telling you the story, hands you a bunch of the ‘ Maiden’s Hair.’ ” 
Reference has already been made to Adiantum cuneatum, and it may be well to say a 
word or two more about it, inasmuch as it is probably this species which is considered by most 
people as being the true Maidenhair. It is certainly the plant usually grown in greenhouses 
under that name, and this is natural enough, as it is very much more easy to grow, and its 
fronds last longer when cut, so that it is more suitable for use in bouquets and for other decorative 
purposes. Notwithstanding its general cultivation at the present day, it is not an old inhabitant 
of our stoves, having been first introduced to this country in a living state in 1841, when 
plants were sent from the Botanic Gardens at Berlin to the Royal Gardens at Kew. The 
fronds are about a foot (sometimes more) in length, gracefully spreading, and ovate in form ; 
they are very numerous, rising from a tufted rhizome, forming in large plants a dense mass ; 
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