T 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE MOUNTAIN PARSLEY FERN. 

 Allosorus crispus. 



O compare this exceedingly pretty little 

 fern to a tuft of parsley would be to 

 give it, perhaps, the best general description 

 which could be found for it. About six inches 

 is its average height ; but we ourselves have 

 had specimens brought by a friend from the 

 neighbourhood of Creetown, in Scotland, seven 

 or eight inches in length : and it is even pos- 

 sible that larger specimens might be obtained 

 from habitats where the conditions of growth 

 are unusually favourable. The Parsley Fern has 

 two distinct kinds of frond barren and fertile. 

 This distinction in the fronds exists in many 

 of our native species ; but it is only in some 

 that, as in the case of the Parsley Fern, the 



