THE MAIDENHAIR. 
145 
seven hundred, and, calculating on the increasing spirit 
of botanical research, no doubt it will receive continual 
accessions. “ There are about fifty species in Great 
Britain, but so much more copious are they in intertro- 
pical countries, especially islands, that Plumier collected 
one hundred and sixty different species in St. Domingo 
and Martinique alone; and the native ferns of Jamaica, 
already known, amount to about two hundred.” Plants 
of this class vary greatly in size, some, where warmth 
and moisture combine their effects, growing to the height 
of even eighty feet, with stems of proportionate thick¬ 
ness; whilst others may vie with the most delicate and 
minute specimens of nature’s handiwork. Amongst the 
latter ranks the Adiantum Capillus Veneris, so named 
from its slender capillary stalks, a most beautiful little 
fern, and from its rarity considered no trifling prize by 
the botanist, having been only found as yet in some 
parts of Glamorganshire, in the South Isles of Arran, 
and on the banks of the Carron, in Kincardineshire. It 
grows plentifully in the southern parts of France, and, 
in the Mediterranean, on rocks and old ruins. Ilassel- 
quist also found it at Damietta, and in the well at the 
sealed fountain of Solomon near Bethlehem. It is a 
very succulent plant, and from it the French make a 
syrup, which, being perfumed with orange flowers, is 
L 
