diff --git a/HISTORY.rst b/HISTORY.rst
index 02593a34..34226f49 100644
--- a/HISTORY.rst
+++ b/HISTORY.rst
@@ -3,6 +3,14 @@
 Release History
 ---------------
 
+dev (XXXX)
+++++++++++
+
+**Minor Improvements** (Backwards compatible)
+
+- The ``verify`` keyword argument now supports being passed a path to a
+  directory of CA certificates, not just a single-file bundle.
+
 2.8.1 (2015-10-13)
 ++++++++++++++++++
 
diff --git a/docs/user/advanced.rst b/docs/user/advanced.rst
index 62959a93..f0d2ffd9 100644
--- a/docs/user/advanced.rst
+++ b/docs/user/advanced.rst
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ I don't have SSL setup on this domain, so it fails. Excellent. GitHub does thoug
     >>> requests.get('https://github.com', verify=True)
     <Response [200]>
 
-You can pass ``verify`` the path to a CA_BUNDLE file with certificates of trusted CAs::
+You can pass ``verify`` the path to a CA_BUNDLE file or directory with certificates of trusted CAs::
 
     >>> requests.get('https://github.com', verify='/path/to/certfile')
 
diff --git a/requests/adapters.py b/requests/adapters.py
index c69c082e..44f5064a 100644
--- a/requests/adapters.py
+++ b/requests/adapters.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ This module contains the transport adapters that Requests uses to define
 and maintain connections.
 """
 
+import os.path
 import socket
 
 from .models import Response
@@ -185,10 +186,15 @@ class HTTPAdapter(BaseAdapter):
                 raise Exception("Could not find a suitable SSL CA certificate bundle.")
 
             conn.cert_reqs = 'CERT_REQUIRED'
-            conn.ca_certs = cert_loc
+
+            if not os.path.isdir(cert_loc):
+                conn.ca_certs = cert_loc
+            else:
+                conn.ca_cert_dir = cert_loc
         else:
             conn.cert_reqs = 'CERT_NONE'
             conn.ca_certs = None
+            conn.ca_cert_dir = None
 
         if cert:
             if not isinstance(cert, basestring):