PROIIP Til F R TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 

 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 



selves, had obtained doubtful standing-room. In a 

 pocket in the limestone just above us I was shown 

 a very brown and withered little plant which only 

 the closest scrutiny in combination with a certain 

 amount of foreknowledge could identify as the 

 Slender Cliff Brake. The season had been a dry 

 one and the plant had perished, I fancy, for lack of 

 water, in spite of the stream which plunged from 

 the top of the cliffs close by, almost near enough, it 

 seemed to me, to moisten with its spray 

 our hot cheeks. 



Later in the season I found more prom- 

 ising though not altogether satisfactory 

 specimens of this plant growing in other 

 rocky crevices of the same deep glen, 

 in the neighborhood of the Maidenhair 

 Spleenwort, the Walking Leaf, and the 

 Bulblet Bladder Fern. 



My sister tells me that late in August 

 on the cliffs which border the St. Lawrence River, 

 refreshed by the myriad streams which leap or 

 trickle down their sides, under the hanging roots 

 of trees, close to clusters of quivering harebells 

 and pale tufts of the Brittle Bladder Fern, the 

 Slender Cliff Brake grows in profusion, its delicate 

 fronds rippling over one another so closely that at 

 times they give the effect of a long, luxuriant moss. 

 On most occasions, in these soft beds of foliage, 

 she found the fertile fronds, which are far more 

 slender and unusual looking than the sterile, largely 



predominating, though at times a patch would be 



88 



