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MAIDEN-HAIR SPLEENWORT. 
confluent, and cover the whole frond. This also is a 
very universal Fern, found not only in the Old and 
New World, but also in the newer world of Australia. 
It once had a medicinal reputation, and, according to 
Ray, was usefully employed in affections of the chest. 
It is also sometimes referred to in old medical books 
as the plant from which the syrup called Capillaire is 
produced. Turner, in his Herball, published in 1 568 
calls it “English Mayden’s Heare,” and says: — “the 
juice stayeth the heare that falleth of, and if they be 
fallen off, it restoreth them agayne.” It grows best 
in cultivation, in sandy loam with leaf-mould, and 
does not require so much shade as other ferns. 
HABITATS. 
Ambleside, Keswick, Borrowdale, Calder Bridge, 
and throughout the district. 
The most beautiful of its varieties is the incisum, 
with pinnae deeply pinnatifid with linear notched seg- 
ments. It has been found in Borrowdale by Miss 
Wright; in Lindale-in-Cartmel by Mr. A. Mason; at 
Ambleside by Rev. J. Bonney ; in Langdale by Mr. G. 
B. Wollaston ; and at Haverthwaite by Mr. G. Baini. 
OTHER VARIETIES. 
depauperatum, — Kendal Fell, J. M. Barnes ; Whitbarrow, F. 
Clowes ; Amside, J. Crossfield. 
bifurcum, — Windermere, F. Clowes ; Arnside, J. Crossfield ; 
Bardsea, Mrs. J. K. Hodgson. 
