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The Fern Lover's Companion - A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada by George Henry Tilton
page 36 of 136 (26%)
to ten inches high, growing in tufts with stout rootstocks, having the
pinnules finely toothed instead of rounded and the indusia often lunate,
rarely twice as long as broad. (Fernald in _Rhodora_, November, 1905.) Also
found in northern Vermont, and to the northwestward.

(2) THE VENUS-HAIR FERN. _Adiantum Capíllus-Veneris_

Fronds with a continuous main rachis, ovate-lanceolate, twice pinnate
below. Pinnules, fan-shaped on slender, black stalks, long, deeply and
irregularly incised. Veins extending from the base of the pinnules like the
ribs of a fan.

[Illustration: Venus Hair Fern. _Adiantum Capillus-Veneris_]

While our common maidenhair is a northern fern, the Venus-hair Fern is
confined to the southern states. It is rarely found as far north as
Virginia, where it meets, but scarcely overlaps its sister fern. The
medicinal properties of _Adiantum pedatum_ were earlier ascribed to the
more southern species, which is common in Great Britain, but, like many
another old remedy, "the syrup of capillaire" is long since defunct.



3. CLIFF BRAKES. _Pellàea_

Sporangia borne on the upper part of the free veins inside the margins, in
dot-like masses, but may run together, as in the continuous fruiting line
of the bracken. Indusium formed of the reflexed margins of the fertile
segments which are more or less membranous. (Pellæa, from the Greek
_pellos_, meaning dusky, in allusion to the dark stipes.)
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