38 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Watson (" Cyb. Brit." iii. 284) says that this fern gets up to 1 190 m. 

 in East Highlands. As it does not seem to occur much above 

 1000 m. in Aberdeenshire and Perthshire, there only remains 

 Inverness-shire, and confirmatory evidence is desirable before accept- 

 ing this altitude as correct. The fern, however, ascends to 1006 m. 

 (near the summit) of Ben Ime (J. R. Lee in "Ann. Andersonian 

 Nat. Soc." iii. 122 [1908]). Descends to sea-level in Cork. 



163. Cryptogramme crispa, Brown, ex. Hook., "Gen. Filicum," 

 60, t. 115 B. (1842). Ascends to the summit of Ben More, in 

 Ross-shire (G . C. Druce, iSSi, in Herb. Brit.). Mr. Druce has 

 written on the label "summit of Scuir Ouran, at about 3700 ft." 

 The mountain referred to is evidently Scuir Fluouran, whose 

 summit, however, rises only to 3505 ft., and is the Gaelic name for 

 Ben More. Of the three recent Lists issued, the London Catalogue 

 ed. x. is the only one which gives this plant correctly. Cryptogramma 

 means "hidden words," and would at least require a neuter specific 

 name. Cryptogramme means " hidden lines," and is Hooker's 

 amended spelling of the generic name, and is the Greek compound 

 which Brown of course intended to write, as there were no " hidden 

 words " concealed in the frond of the fern. Mr. G. C. Druce gives 

 as the authority for the generic name "Br. in Flinders' Voy. 767." 

 The work referred to is Franklin's Voyage to the Polar Sea, not 

 Flinders' Voyage to Australia two points of the compass which are 

 literally poles apart. Brown's type-species of the genus which he 

 distinguished and denned was Cryptogramma acrostichoides, which is 

 the Arctic American form of C. crispa of this country ( - Osmunda 

 crispa, L.). In his own annotated copy of the second edition of 

 " Sp. Plant." in the Linnean Library, Linnaeus has altered this name 

 by a scratch of the pen to Pteris crispa. It is the Adianhtm album 

 crispum alpinum of Ray's "Synopsis." On the mountains of the 

 Breadalbane district it ascends to 1122 m. in exposed stony places, 

 and on alpine rubbles on Ben Lawers, Ben More, Ben Ein, and 

 Ben Heasgarmich (White), but does not get up to 1000 m. in any 

 of the other districts of Perthshire. The Parsley Fern is very 

 common all ulong the Snowdon range among loose stones ; where, 

 like Asplenum septentrionak, it was first recorded as a British fern 

 by Lloyd in Gibson's edition of Camden's "Britannia" (1695). 

 According to the zonal distribution indicated by Watson (" Cyb. 

 Brit. Comp." 408, n. 1378), it ascends to 1016 m. on Snowdon, 

 Carnedd Llewelyn, and Carnedd Dafydd. In Ireland, where this 

 fern is very rare, it descends to 90 m. above sea-level in Antrim 

 (Rev. C. F. D'Arcy) ; but this low level is discounted by the fact that 

 it occurred among fallen rocks below Fair Head (1897). 



Fam. 36. HYMENOPHYLLACEX. 



164. Hynunophylhim pdtatum, Desvaux (1827). Forms carpets 



