THE COMMON MAIDENHAIR EERN.
ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS.
A. fronds bi-tri-pinnate ; pinnules smooth, membranaceous,
obliquely roundish wedge-shaped, or with a truncate base, attached
by capillary stalks, lohed on the anterior margin, the sterile lobes
dentate ;. sori transversely ohlong, often occupying the whole of the
lohes ; stipes and raohis black, glossy. [Plate 0 .]
A d i a n t u m C a p i l l u s - V e n e r i s , Linnoeus, Sp. Plant. 1 5 5 8 . Bolton, Pil. Brit.
2 4 , t . 2 9 . Smith, Eng. Bot. x x i i . t . 1 5 6 4 ; Id ., Eng. PI. 2 e d . iv . 307-
Hooker (t Amott, Brit. PI. 7 e d . 5 9 1 . BaUngton, Man. Brit, B o t 4 e d . 4 2 8 .
Mackay, FI. Hih. 3 4 4 . Dealdn, Florigr. B r i t iv . 4 9 , fig. 1 5 8 6 . Newman,
H is t B r i t Fci-ns, 3 e d . 1. Moore, Handh. B r i t Ferns, 3 e d . 2 2 9 ; Id .,
Femis o f Gt. BHt. Nature PHntcd, t . 4 5 ; Id ., In d . Fil. 21 . Sowerby, Ferns
o f Gt B H t 7 0 , t . 4 0 . Bentham, Handb. B r i t FI. 6 3 6 . Jacquin. Misc.
A u s t ii. 7 7 , t . 7. Willdenow, Sp. P la n t v . 4 4 9 . Presl, T en t Pterid. 1 5 8 .
Hooker, Gen. Fil. t . 66 B ; Id ., Sp. Fil. ii. 3 6 . Fée, Gen. Fil. 1 1 4 ; Id .,
Jconogr. Nouv. t . 1 2 , fig . 2. Nyinan, SyU. FI. Eur. 4 3 3 . Koch, Syn. 2 e d .
9 8 5 . Ledebour, FI. Boss. iv . 5 2 7 . Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips. 48.
A d i a n t u m a f r i c a n u m , Brown, App. Tuckexfs Voy. 4 6 2 ( n am e o n ly ).
A d i a n t u m C a p i l l u s , Swartz, Schrad. Journ. Bot. 1 8 0 0 , i i . 8 3 . Sprengel, Syst.
Veg. iv . 1 1 3 . L in k , F i t Sp. 70.
A d i a n t u m c o r i a n d k i f o l i u m , Lamarck, FI. Franç. i. 2 9 ; Id ., Enc. B o t i. 4 3 ;
Id ., Illustrationes, t . 8 7 0 , fig . 1.
A d ia n t u m c u n e if o l iu m , Stokes, B o t M a t Med. iv . 6 1 2 .
A d ia n t u m d e p e n d e n s , Chapman MS. in Hb. Hooker.
A d i a n t u m f o n t a n u m , Salisbury, Prod. 4 0 4 . Gray, N a t A m . B H t Plants,
Ü. 17.
A d i a n t u m M o r i t z i a n u m , Lin k , Fil. Sp. 7 1 . Fée, Gen. Fil. 1 1 4 . Kunze, Lin.
x x i i i. 2 1 6 .
A d ia n t u m r e p a n d u m , T auseh; ^^Sieb. Exsw. 1 7 6 ; ” a c c o r d in g t o K lo t z s c h .
A d ia n t u m t e n e r u m , Roxburgh, Calc. Journ. N a t H is t iv . 5 1 3 .
A d i a n t u m t r i f i d u m , Willdenoio, Herb. 2 0 1 0 8 . Bolle, Bonpl. i i i . 1 2 1 .
Caudex slowly creeping, about as thick as a small goose quill,
densely scaly. Scales dark brown, narrow lanceolate aciuninate,
striately venose. Fibres wiry, branched, shaggy.
Vernation circinate.
Stijies about as long as the fronds, having a few scattered scales
near the base, lateral, and adherent to the caudex; and as well as
the rachis, slender, blackish-purple (ebeneous), smooth, shining.
Fronds usually ovate or triangular, sometimes ohlong or lanceolate,
membranaceous, glabrous, bright green, drooping, from six to
twelve or sometimes eighteen inches in length, bipinnate or tri-
piimate. Fiimæ and Pinnules alternate; the latter attached by
short capillary stalks, of various forms : roundish with the base
truncate, subtrapeziform, obovate or obliquely fan-shaped, generally
more or less cuneate at the base, the posterior margins entire, the
anterior lobato. In the sterile fronds the lobes are dentate or inoiso-
dentate ; in the fertile ones they are obtuse or truncate, the sori
often occupying their entfre width.
Venation of the pinnules consisting of a series of dichotomous
ramifications of the vascular bundles of the petioles, the first furcation
forming the extreme base of the pinnule ; the veins are again
and again forked in a flabellate-radiate manner, so that the whole
pinnule becomes traversed by a series of contiguous and nearly
parallel venules, which aro disunited at their apices. In the sterile
portions, one of these venules is directed to each marginal tooth, in
the apex of which it terminates ; whilst in the fertile portions, the
venules extend to the margin, and being oontinued thenoe nearly
across the indusium, there form the receptacles.
Fructifleation generally distributed on the back of the fronds.
Sori oblong, borne on tbe apices of all the lohes into which the
anterior margin of the pinnule is divided, more or less lengthened
according to the width of the lobe ; attached to the under surface
of the indusium. Indusium of the same form as the sorus, consisting
as it were, of a portion of the apex of the lobe, reflexed, and
changed in texture into a thin bleached veiny membrane, the veins
being the receptacles. Spore-cases globose. Spores roundish or
angular, ovate, smooth.
Buration. The rhizome is perennial. The fronds are persistent,
remaining until after young ones are produced, if kept from heing
injured by frost. The young growth commences in April or May.
This is unlike every other British Fern ; its black shining slender
stipites, its capillary ramifications, and its fan-shaped or wedge-
shaped pinnules, irrespective of its fruotifioation, serve at once to
distinguish it.
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