48 
FERNS. 
[Adiantum. 
and polished. Fertile fronds numerous, erect, strap-shaped, taper- 
ing at each end, about a foot high. Pinna; linear, dilated somewhat 
at the base, in some degree falcate, distant from each other, and 
alternate, wholly covered on the under side with fruit. Barren 
fronds lanceolate, shorter than those which are fertile, and growing 
more on the outside of the plant, their pinnae oblong, curved up- 
ward, and placed close together at their bases, but scarcely dilated 
at that part. Sori continued in an uninterrupted line from the base 
to the point of each pinna, one on each side of the midrib. In- 
dusium attached to the edge of the pinna, opening on the side 
nearest the midrib. 
While young the back of the lobe shows only the midrib and two irregu- 
larly edged, white covers ; afterwards they bend back and turn brown, and as 
in our species no leafy expansion appears outside the line of theca;, but 
the cover seems to be the edge of the frond reversed, it might be taken at first 
sight for a Pteris. 
Sit. — On sandy heaths, hedge-rows, stony places, &c. 
Hab. — Spread throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the last 
country especially iu the counties of Wicklow and Clare. It ascends to 700 
yards in Cumberland, 800 in Forfarshire, and much higher on the Cairngorum 
Mountains, in Aberdeenshire, where it probably attains to situations of the 
height of 1200 or 1300 yards. 
Geo. — Common in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and N.W. coast 
of America. 
ADIANTUM, Linn. MAIDEN-HAIR. 
(From aSiwTOf, against, and hurra, moisture, the plants never being wet.) 
PLATE OF GENEltA, FIG. II. 
A very beautiful, delicate, and interesting genus of 63 species, indigenous to the 
southern countries of Europe and the Tropical regions, this country being the 
northern limit of them all. The sori are arranged in spots along the margin cf 
the pinnules, and covered by part of the frond reflexed. 
ADIANTUM CAPILLUS- VENERIS. 
TRUE MAIDEN-HAIR. 
(Plate 4, fig. 3.) 
Ciia. — F rond twice pinnate. Pinnules alternate, cuneiform, 
lobed, on capillary petioles. Indusium oblong. 
Syn — A diantum Capillus-veneris, Linn., Willd., Smith, Bolt., Dicks., Hook., 
Mack. — Adiantum capillus. Swz. — Adiantum Fontanum, Salisb., Gray. 
— Adiantum coriandrifolium, Lam. — Capillus veneris verus, Dill, in 
Ray’s Syn., Ger. 
Fig. — E. B. 1564 .— Bolt. 29. — Jacq. Misc. t. 7. — Ger. 1143 (bad). 
Des. — Root slightly creeping and very hairy. Radii slender, 
