THE ANNUAL MAIDENHAIR. 
289 
Maidenhair requires exceptional care; but do not 
forget that for all the care which you bestow upon 
it, it will repay you by assuming in its adopted 
home the freshest and most delicate shade of de¬ 
lightful green, and the most delicate of graceful 
forms. 
7 . 
THE ANNUAL MAIDENHAIR. 
Gxymnocjramma lejotopJiylla. 
\1E general resemblance to the True 
Maidenhair in the arrangement of 
frond and leaflet, has entitled the 
Slender Gymnogram to the name of c The Annual 
Maidenhair.’ But this very pretty plant is dis¬ 
tinguished from all our British Ferns by the short 
period of its existence—springing up and dying 
within the year. A tiny thing it is, only three or 
four inches in length, its fronds rising from a 
tufted root-stock, their leafy parts being longer 
than their stems, which are of a brownish colour, 
and smooth. The fronds on the same plant are 
graduated in length, preserving no regular shape; 
