37 . 
THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEEN W 0 RT . 
Asplenium adiantum-n igrum. 
Plate 6 , Fig. 15, Page 235. 
Foe elegance of form, and depth and richness of colouring, 
the Black Maidenhair Spleenwort must take the first place 
— in the gradation of beauty — amongst our native Spleen- 
worts. Its specific common name has no doubt been 
suggested by the likeness of its stipides to those of the 
True Maidenhair, both being of a dark rich purple, almost 
approaching black, and bearing a resemblance in colour to 
a dark maiden’s raven hair tresses. The specific botanical 
name of adiantum-nigrum can only, however, be translated 
‘ Black adiantum,’ and can only refer to the resemblance of 
this Fern, in one particular, to the True Maidenhair. 
The word adiantum , as we have previously seen, comes 
from adiantos, ‘dry’ or ‘unmoistened; 5 and, in the case of 
the True Maidenhair, refers to the power possessed by the 
surface of the fronds of repelling moisture. But the fronds 
of the present species do not repel moisture, and its name 
of adiantum, therefore, is clearly imitative, and not strictly 
descriptive of an individual quality. Asplenium adiantum- 
nigrum, though a rock-loving Fern, grows in greatest 
luxuriance upon rocks deeply veined with soft seams of earth, 
and under shelter of the spreading branches of plants of 
larger growth. Upon walls and other solid stone-work 
closely knit, it often grows abundantly, even under the eye 
