Golden Maidenhair.
Also see: True Maidenhair - English Maidenhair - White Maidenhair - Black Maidenhair - Golden Maidenhair
Adiantum aureum.
A little upright plant, but considered as a moss, one of the largest of the kind. It grows four or five inches high, when in perfection. The lower part of the stalk is covered for an inch or more, with thick, short, narrow leaves, sharp at the point, and of a dusky green colour: these stand in such clusters, that they quite hide the stalk; from the top of these rise the pedicles, supporting the heads; they are naked three or four inches high, slender, and of a brownish, reddish, or blackish colour: the head of the summit of these is single, square, and is covered with a woolly cap, of the figure of an extinguisher, which fall off when the head is entirely ripe: this head is full of a fine dust.
The plant is frequent in boggy places, and is to be used intire. Some talk of its being good in coughs, but the more frequent use of it is externally, they boil it in water, and wash the head with it, to make the hair grow thick.
