114 FILICES 
2. GYMNOGRAM (Gymnogrdmme). 
Fine-leaved Gymnogram (G. leptophylla).—Fronds egg-shaped, twice 
pinnate; pinne roundish, wedge-shaped, three-lobed, the lobes cut and 
toothed, blunt. This pretty, fragile little fern is an annual plant, very well 
known in the countries at the south of Europe, and a native of the Atlantic 
Islands, as well as of Jersey. In the latter island it is not an uncommon 
plant on grassy hedge-banks, and by the side of rivulets. For many years 
past its growth in Jersey has caused its enumeration among British ferns, but 
it appears also to grow in some part of the United Kingdom, for a corre- 
spondent of the Gardener’s Chronicle for January, 1853, sent for inspection to 
Professor Lindley a specimen of this fern found in Britain, and, as he observes, 
entirely new to this country. The writer avoided giving the locality, doubt- 
less from the apprehension that if he did so, some botanists might visit the 
spot, and entirely eradicate the fern, in order to increase the stores of their 
own fernery or herbarium. He remarks: “This morning I examined the 
place where it was gathered last year, and found that it is coming up plentifully 
again. It is growing in a clay soil, on a bank at the foot of a hill, and is 
much overshadowed with ivy and larger ferns. Aspléniuwm lanceoldtum grows 
plentifully all round it, and the bank is in that part covered with a small 
round lichen. The situation is very damp and much sheltered, and the fern 
is scattered over a surface of two or three yards; but I can find no trace of 
it over any other part of the bank, and I have never met with it on any 
other part of the island. The place where it grows is unfrequented, and I 
do not think it possible it should be anything but wild.” This secret 
station remains a secret, for Jersey is still the only locality published in our 
Floras. 
This fern requires a sandy loam or other light soil when cultivated, and 
must be kept in shadow and in a moist atmosphere. At the latter end of 
summer its fronds arise from the spores shed in spring, and are very small 
and usually barren; but, early in the following year, some taller fronds 
gradually develop themselves, and these are, when fully grown, about three 
or four inches high, and extremely delicate in texture. They are twice or 
thrice pinnate; the pinne and pinnules alternate or opposite; the end 
pinnules bluntly wedge-shaped or rounded, about three-lobed, the lobes 
terminating with two blunt teeth. The pinnule has a mid-vein, from which 
issues a forked vein, on which the cluster of fructification is placed, a part of 
the cluster occupying each branch of the vein, so that the cluster itself is 
forked ; after a time, however, the fructification forms a mass over the whole 
under surface of the pinnules. 
3. ROCK-BRAKE (Allosdrus). 
Curled Rock-brake, Mountain Parsley, or Parsley Fern 
(A. crispus).—Barren fronds, twice or thrice pinnate ; segments wedge- 
shaped, linear, oblong ; segments of the fertile frond oblong. Many persons. 
visiting the lakes at the north of England bring back with them a few fronds 
of this elegant little fern; and it is so beautiful in outline, and often renders 
