PELL^A ORNITHOPUS. BIRD ROCK-BRAKE. 1 9 



ing as we attach to a " clearing," or land ready or capable of 

 being broken up with the plough, as distinguished from wood- 

 land ; and then from the " Brake Fern," generally growing in 

 these open places rather than in woods, as most other ferns of 

 the old world known to the ancients did. Pellcea, taken from 

 Pieris, grows rather on rocky places, and it is probable from this, 

 in connection with the ancient popular name, that it has received 

 the popular name of " Rock-Brake." " Bird's-foot" is the trans- 

 lation of its specific name, ornithopiis. The lower pinnules are 

 ternately divided, and have much the appearance of a track made 

 by a bird's foot, from whence the name is derived. The student 

 must not, however, consider this division of the pinnae a very im- 

 portant character, as it is not unusual to see specimens in which 

 most of the pinnse are undivided, and when better opportunities 

 for investigation are afforded, many of the western species now 

 thought to be distinct will probably be found united under fewer 

 names. 



This species is a very pretty one. It is a native of California, 

 from whence it often comes in collections of dried specimens, 

 showing that it is not uncommon in that region. As already 

 noted of Pellcea in general, it does not make its home in low 

 alluvial soils where rains and floods would soon tear its delicate 

 fronds away ; but it loves, in the language of the poet Percival, to 

 exhibit 



" its rare and beautiful forms, 



In sporting amid those towers of stone, 

 And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms 



Has made the top of the wave his own." 



Dr. C. C. Parry, however, informed the writer of this that in 

 his collections in California he often found it on gravelly knolls, 

 where it could be protected from washing away by the aid of 

 such plants as Adenostoma, Ceanothus, or Pceonia Brownii, when 

 the fronds would be very luxuriant though then assuming a rather 

 suff habit, and having a real lurid hue, warranting Mr. John 

 Smith's interpretation of the generic name. 



