FERN TRIBE 115 
the rocks so richly tinted by its green fronds, that it tempts even those who 
are not botanists to gather it. Southey, who describes it as the Stone Fir, 
or Mountain Parsley, says it is the “most beautiful of all our wild plants, 
resembling the richest point lace in its fine filaments and exquisite indenta- 
tions.” We have sometimes, while looking at it, recalled the words of 
Milton : 
** For not to use alone did Providence 
Abound, but large example gave to man 
Of grace, and ornament, and splendour rich, 
Suited abundantly to every taste, 
In bird, beast, fish, winged and creeping thing, 
In herb and flower.” 
Graceful it is, and delightful to the eye of the lover of nature; though 
neither singing bird, nor brightly-tinted insect, nor useful cattle, can find 
nourishment in its luxuriance. 
The favourite place of growth of the Rock Parsley is among the rugged 
masses of stones and broken rocks which lie at the base or on the slopes of 
mountains, in the north of England. It extends as far south as North 
Devon, but is entirely absent from the east of England ; and in Ireland it is 
very rare. At first sight its crisped sprays might be taken for a tuft of the 
leaves of common parsley, and it is as bright and green as that herb in 
early summer. Here and there some patches of the plant gather in abun- 
dance and beauty on the slate mountains of Cumberland, relieving their dark 
tint by the verdant fronds; and many an enthusiastic botanist, who has 
visited the slate and trap rocks of Snowdon, has hailed this lovely fern 
with rapture, as he beheld it covering their rugged surfaces in wild profusion. 
Both the barren and fertile fronds of the Parsley Fern are twice or thrice 
pinnate, but the nearly wedge-shaped segments of the barren frond are often 
cleft at the end. These fronds are more numerous than the fertile ones, 
and generally of a much lower growth, and of a brighter, more yellowish 
green. ‘The fertile frond is nearly triangular, from six to twelve inches high, 
and the segments are oblong, oval, or linear in form. The divisions of this 
frond have a winding mid-vein, producing lateral ones, either forked or 
simple, which extend nearly to the margin, and bear at their extremities the 
round clusters of spore-cases. These are covered by an indusium, which in 
this species is a thin white continuation of the margins of the leaflet, which 
are rolled under. In the early stage of their growth we may see the circular 
forra of the clusters, as they are then distinct ; but they afterwards mingle 
into two continuous lines of bright brown fructification. 
The stalk of the frond is smooth, pale green, slender, very brittle, and’ 
usually longer than the leafy part; and the delicate green fronds rise in 
great number from the horizontal stem, forming a dense mass, and holding 
very fast to their rocky soils by their black, tough, numerous fibres. They 
rise in May and June; but he who should visit their localities during winter, 
would see no remains of the verdant hue with which they clothed the rocks 
in spring. This Rock-brake is termed by some botanists Cryptogrdmme crispa ; 
it is the Osmdénda crtspa of Linneus. It grows freely in cultivation, but 
requires shade, as too much sunshine renders its green hue less vivid. 
15—2 
