CREE1 ING FERNS. 343 



folds like giant serpents across the choked way, are 

 sprawled over by the lithe, and slender, and wire-like, 

 or the thick, and massive, and gnarled rhizomes of 

 the creeping species. Olfersia cervina a handsome 

 kind, with very distinct forms of frond : the barren, 

 singly pinnate, smooth and green ; the fertile bipin- 

 nate, very slender, and uniformly rust-red with the 

 confluent sori is one of these. And PJilebodium 

 aureum, broadly pinnate, glaucous green, a noble form, 

 throws its thick root-stock about in irregular contor- 

 tions, all covered with golden hair, that shines like 

 silk ; while its dark brown rootlets, as delicately fine 

 as threads, cling to the rough gray stone, meandering 

 over it like a spider's web. The black, scaly rhizome 

 of GoniopJilebium dissimile creeps rapidly up to the 

 summit of a tall block of stone, and allows to droop 

 on every side its long, weeping fronds, soft, thin, and 

 .flaccid as tissue paper, but crisped, and of a fair yellow- 

 green hue, to a distance of three feet from the base : 

 while from beneath their protection peep out the ele- 

 gant leaves of Phegopteris hastcefolia, spindle-shaped 

 in outline, owing to the regular diminution, both 

 above and below, of the leaflets, which individually 

 are marked by singular ear-like projections at their 

 bases. Another creeping root is that of Nevrodium 

 lanceolatum, which sends off at intervals narrow, 

 smooth leaves, of a rich, light green, much attenuated 

 below, and at the tip abruptly contracted in a curious 

 fashion, as if the margin there had been rolled on 

 itself to form the golden fructification. 



