The Maidenhair Fern.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 September 1910, Page 4

The Maidenhair Fern.

ADIANTUM CAPILLFS VENERIS.

The generic name A die n turn #5 derived from adaintos, dry, as if plunged in water it yet remains dry, which Pliny notes, "In vain you plunge the Adia.ntuim in waiter; it always* remains day." Capillusveneris 'means, popularly. Vcnns's hair, or in English, maiden's hair. The maidenhair fe.ru, therefore, derives both, its English and Lfitin names from its being once doomed by herbalists to be particularly powerful in increasing the length of tho hair. "The juyco stayoth the heare that fallcth off, and if they be fallen off it restoroth them asrayne," says an author of mediaeval time. ' The leaves in their natural state resisting water, arc so succulent as to yield, under pressure, nearly three-fouuths of their own weight' in juice. This is imuoh used by French chemists in the making of a sweet syrup called capillaire, sold extensively in Paris and London.

There is a legend in Germany connected with a well. 'beside which a certain kind of maidenhair aboinids. A maiden was keeping trust with her lover, when .by an evil spell he was transformed into a wolf. Flying from him in horror, she fell over a precipice, and her lovely hair became torn and entangled in the •bushes. Instantly a clear spring of water appeared on the spot and her hair grew into the beautiful fern now called the Maidenhair. Sploenwort (Asplenium adiantum nigrum). -lie well is known as Wolf's Spring, and visitors thereto are expected to bnv and take away with them as a relic a frond of the masio-grrnvn plant. Other plants besides Adiamtum eapillus-voncris and Asplenium nigrum claim the title of niaidonhair. of tho Mute Maidenhair, or . Wall Rue (Asploninm rutamurnrin). blunt and honest Gorardc writes. "Others call it Silvia vitae. preserver of life, but wherefore T know not; neither themselves if thev yveve living."

The Yenus's iiair, or common maidenhair fern, it a plant having a wide geographical Tt is found here and there in tlic warmei parts of Great Britain and Ireland, evidently preferring ca.vcrous and rock situations within the influence cf the son. The same species is found in the warmer parts of Eurone, in Asia, in the North of Africa, in the Canaries and Oape do Verd Islands, and in many parts of Australia. Around Mo.n tone, in Riviera, it is said to fringe every watercourse and rock whore there is moisture. Tt attains rroat luxuriance in the warmth of a damp hothouse. —London Journal of Horticulture.