AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR? 

 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 



As I have already mentioned in my description ot 

 the Purple Cliff Brake, on a chance morning call I 

 learned that twenty -five years before the Rue Spleen- 

 wort and the Purple Cliff Brake had been found 

 on certain cliffs which overhung some neighboring 

 falls. 



On these very cliffs a quarter of a century later 

 we found a few specimens of each plant. The tiny 

 fronds of the Rue Spleenwort grew from small fis- 

 sures in the cliffs, flattening themselves against their 

 rocky background. 



About a month later we returned to the spot for 

 the purpose of securing photographs of the natural 

 gallery where the plants grew. The seamed, over- 

 hanging rocks, the neighboring stream plunging 

 nearly two hundred feet to the ravine below, the 

 bold opposite cliffs showing here and there through 

 their cloak of trees, and above and beyond the smil- 

 ing upland pastures, the wood-crowned hills, and the 

 haze-softened valley, had left a picture in the mind 

 that we hoped to reproduce, however inadequately, 

 by means of the camera. 



This morning we had approached the cliffs from 

 an opposite direction. In climbing a gradual ascent 

 from the bed of the stream, we found a plant of the 

 Rue Spleenwort which was more vigorous and thrifty 

 than any we had previously seen. In the single tuft, 

 about as large as the palm of one's hand, we counted 

 forty-five green fronds. Their lower surfaces, in 

 many cases, were covered with confluent fruit-dots. 



The plant had much the effect of a rather small spec 



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