PARSLEY FERN. 29 



plant, should rather have given a name to Parsley. It forms 

 large tufts of fronds, broader than high, springing from beneath 

 a rock (Plate 23). The spreading barren fronds occupy the cir- 

 cumference of the tuft, whilst the fertile fronds stand up in the 

 centre. The general form of the barren frond is a wedge with 

 its three sharp angles rounded off. Its colour is a bright green 

 with a tinge of blue in it ; and its texture is thin. It is twice 

 pinnate, and the wedge-shaped or fan-shaped pinnules are again 

 divided into three or more lobes, which are further broken up 

 into blunt teeth. The fertile fronds are twice or thrice pinnate, 

 the pinnules taking on a spindle-shape, owing to the almost 

 globular sori having become confluent, and the edges of the 

 pinnule being curved back over them (Plate 20). 



The Parsley Fern is a distinctively mountain plant, although 

 it may occur in mountain districts at an elevation but slightly 

 above sea-level, yet these will be only stray specimens from the 

 main body, which will be found from a thousand to three 

 thousand five hundred feet up. It likes a loose soil littered 

 with rocks beneath which its roots, and often its long, tufted, 

 horizontal rootstock, run, so that to extract a plant intact is not 

 an easy matter. Often it may be growing out of a dry or 

 unmortared stone dyke, when apparently its capture is easy ; 

 but the rootstock will be, probably, far out of reach, the naked 

 stipes elongating enormously to bring the whole frond into day- 

 light. The stipes of the fertile frond is about twice the length 

 of that of the barren frond, so that the leafy portion is erected 

 well above the barren fronds an arrangement which allows the 

 spores to be wafted clear of the parent plant. The fertile 

 fronds stand about a foot in height ; the barren about half 

 that measurement (Plate 25). 



The geographical distribution of the plant in Britain is from 

 Shetland to North Devon. It occurs on Exmoor in that county ; 

 also in Somerset, Worcestershire, Shropshire, South and North 

 Wales, and so northwards, apparently avoiding limestone. It 



