rpnnp in FE R TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 



UKUUf 111 YT D , FFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 



16. PURPLE CLIFF BRAKE 



Pellcea atropurpurea 



Canada to Georgia and westward, usually on limestone cliffs ; with 

 wiry purplish stalks. 



Fertile fronds. Six to twenty inches high, leathery, bluish-green, 

 pale underneath, once, or below twice, pinnate ; pinnce, upper ones 

 long and narrow, lower ones usually with one to four pairs of 

 broadly linear pinnules ; sporangia bordering the pinnae, bright 

 brown at maturity ; indusium formed by the reflexed margin of the 

 frond. 



Sterile fronds. Usually much smaller than the fertile and less 

 abundant ; pinna oblong, entire, or slightly toothed. 



The Purple Cliff Brake is one of the plants that re- 

 joice in un-get-at-able and perilous situations. Al- 

 though its range is wider than that of many ferns, 

 this choice of inconvenient localities, joined to the 

 fact that it is not a common plant, renders it likely 

 "hat unless you pay it the compliment of a special 

 expedition in its honor you will never add it to the 

 list of your fern acquaintances. 



But when all is said we are inestimably in debt to 

 the plants so rare or so exclusive as to entice us out 

 of our usual haunts into theirs. Not only do they 

 draw us away from our books, out of our houses, 

 but off the well-known road and the trodden path 

 into unfamiliar woods which stand ready to reveal 

 fresh treasures, across distant pastures where the 

 fragrant wind blows away the memory of small 

 anxieties, up into the hills from whose summits we 

 get new views. 



Although the Purple Cliff Brake grows, I believe 



90 



