SPECIES AND VARIETIES OF 
BRITISH FERNS 
ADIANTUM CAPILLUS VENERIS (THE MAIDEN-HAIR FERN) 
Plate II 
This very pretty and delicate species is a solitary member of a large 
genus as regards the British Isles, in which, indeed, it only exists, 
as it were, on sufferance, as а native, properly, of warmer climes. 
Hence it is only found on our warm coasts, and under culture 
requires a warm house, or at any rate one from which frost is 
excluded. Elsewhere it is widely distributed in many parts of the 
world where the climate 1s favourable, and moist conditions prevail, 
at any rate, locally. Fig. 14 depicts sufficient of a mature frond 
Fig. 14. Ad с. 2. (pinna). 
to permit of easy recognition of the species, which, as will be seen, 
bears its fructification in short marginal patches, which are pro- 
tected by the inturned edges of the rounded projections on the 
edges of the subdivisions of the frond. It forms very pretty pot 
specimens, planted in broken peat, silver sand, and a little loam, 
in which its black, creeping rootstock travels slowly, throwing up 
the fronds at short intervals. 
Curiously enough, despite its limited area, several very marked 
varieties have been found, by far the handsomest of which is Ad. 
c. v. var. Cornubiense, a fairly exact imitation of that beautiful 
exotic, Ad. Farleyense, undoubtedly the most beautiful Adiantum 
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