Adiantum.'} 
FERNS. 
63 
Fertile fronds taller and more robust, but less expanded than the 
barren ones ; their pinnae more inclined to be alternate. Pinnules 
oblong, elliptic, blunt, their crenate sides turned over upon the sori, 
which are in lines along each side of the lobe, distinct only for a 
very short time at first, then very confluent and crowded. 
Sit. — Southey calls this plant the “ Mountain Parsley,” an appellation which 
well expresses its tender habit, its delicate, lively colour, and its numerous, finely 
cut, and crisped leaves. Covering large patches, as it sometimes does, on the tops 
of rocky mountains, it adds a bright gleam of verdure and of beauty to its 
romantic hut barren dwelling-place, and becomes an oasis of rich fertility upon 
the precipitous face of the otherwise sterile rock. 
Hab. — From 200 yards upwards to a considerable elevation in Caernarvon- 
shire (top of Snowdon). In Cumberland from 200 or 300 yards to 1040 yards. 
In the Highlands, from the low valleys to 1100 yards on Ben-na Bourd. More 
common in the lake district of England than in Scotland, but frequent in several 
parts of the latter, Mr. II. C. Watson. Breiddon Hill (twelve miles west of 
Shrewsbury), Mr. J. E. Bowman. Greenfield, Saddlewortli, Mr. J. Merrick. 
Higher parts of the Tees, Mr. Hogg. Common about Settle, Yorkshire, Mr. J. 
Tatham. Skiddaw, Helvellyn, Saddleback, Grassmoor, Vale of Newlands, &c., 
Cumberland, Mr. II. C. Watson. On rocks at the foot of Cheviot, above Langley 
Ford, Mr. Winch. Near Lancaster, Mr. W. Wilson. — Wales : Mount Glyder, 
Mount Snowdon, and Mynydd Mawr, Caernarvonshire, Mr. C. C. Babington. 
Cader Idris, Mr. Burton. North Wales (abundantly), Mr. W. Christy . — 
Scot. : Ross-shire, Rev. G. Gordon. Glen Tilt and Blair Athol, Perthshire, Mr. 
W. Brand. Not rare in Sutherland, Dr. Murray. — Ire. : Abundant on the 
Mourxie mountains, Mr. Mackay. 
Geo. — Lapland, Germany, Switzerland, Pyrenees, Silesia, Sweden, Jutland, 
Norway, Dauphiny, Holland. 
ADIANTUM, Linn. MAIDEN-HAIR. 
(From a, without, and havra, moisture; the plants never being wet.) 
A, pinnules of Adiantum Capillus-veneris, showing the position of the sori and 
indusia. B, an indusium removed, showing the attachment of the sori, one 
indusium covering several. C, theca and ring. D, spore. 
A very beautiful, delicate, and interesting genus of sixty-three species, indi- 
genous 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 of the pinnules, and covered by a reflexed membranous fold of the leaf. 
ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS. 
TRUE MAIDEN-HAIR. 
(Plate VI, fig. 3.) 
, CliA. — Leaf twice pinnate. Pinnules alternate, wedge-shaped, 
lobed, on capillary petioles. Indusium oblong. 
