TRUE MAIDENHAIR. 
83 
TRUE MAIDENHAIR {natural size). 
Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, Linneus. 
The true Maidenhair, the only species of the genus Adiantum 
that has been discovered in Britain, is one of our most local 
and most beautiful ferns : it always occurs in moist caves or 
the fissures of rocks, near the sea-coast, preferring a perpen- 
dicular surface, whence its delicate fronds grow in a nearly 
horizontal direction, inclining upwards at the extremity. 
Cornwall. — I am indebted to Miss J. M. Fox for a living- 
plant from Carclew, the seat of Sir C. Lemon, where it grows abun- 
dantly. Mr. Ralfs informs me he found it on cliffs within reach 
of the sea-spray, between St. Ives and Hayle ; and Mr. H. C. 
Watson gives me St. Ives as a habitat on the authority of the 
Rev. J. S. Tozer, and Garrick Gladden — a sea-cave in the same 
vicinity — on the authority of the Rev. Jas. Harris. 
Devonshire. — ■ I am indebted to Mr. Ward for specimens 
from the vicinity of Ilfracombe : he found it growing luxuriantly 
on the face and in the vertical crevice of a rock in White Peb- 
ble bay, in a dense mass, which commences at a height of about 
twenty-five feet, and descends to within about five feet of the 
level of the sea ; he also observed it at Rillidge point, and two 
