ADIANTUM Capillus Veneris.
True Maidenhair,
CR YPTOGAMIA Filires.
Gen. Char. Fructifications in roundish, marginal,
distinct dots. Involucra like scales, from the
margin of the frond turned in, distinct, opening
inwards.
Spec. Char. Frond doubly compound; leaflets alternate,
stalked, wedge-shaped, lobed.
Syn. Adiantum Capillus Veneris. L in n . Sp. P I . 1558.
Sm. F I . B r i t . 1138. Huds. 460. W ith . 781.
H u ll. 243. L ig h t / . 679. B o l l . F i l . 24. t. 29.
D ic k s . H . S ic c ./a s c . 6. 16.
Capillus Veneris verus. Dill, in R a i i Syn. 123,
T h IS rare and most elegant fern was gathered in the south
islands of Arran near Galloway last Octoberby Mr. J. T. Mac-
kay. We are indebted to that gentleman, and to Dr. Scott of
Dublin, for fine wild specimens,
Nothing can be more beautiful than this Adiantum when
growing among trickling rills in the crevices of shady rocks,
which it overhangs in the most graceful manner. The roots
are perennial, fibrous, tufted and shaggy. Stalks from 6 to
12 or 15 inches high, slender, smooth, of a purplish shining
black. Branches alternate, capillary, of the same colour.
Leaflets alternate, wedge- or fan-shaped, smooth, thm, veiny,
dilated upwards and unequally lobed, their summits turned
back, as it were, in the form of brown scales, each of which
covers a small congeries of capsules,