WILD GARDENS OF THE YOSEMITE PARE 151 



Of five species of pellsea in the Park, the 

 handsome andromedaefolia, growing in brushy 

 foothills with Adiantum emarginatum, is the 

 largest. P. Breweri, the hardiest and at the 

 same time the most fragile of the genus, grows 

 in dense tufts among rocks on storm-beaten 

 mountain sides along the upper margin of the 

 fern line. It is a charming little fern, four or 

 five inches high, has shining bronze-colored stalks 

 which are about as brittle as glass, and pale 

 green pinnate fronds. Its companions on the 

 lower part of its range are Cryptogramme acros- 

 tichoides and Phegopteris alpestris, the latter 

 soft and tender, not at all like a rock fern, 

 though it grows on rocks where the snow lies 

 longest. P. Bridgesii, with blue-green, narrow, 

 simply pinnate fronds, is about the same size 

 as Breweri and ranks next to it as a moun- 

 taineer, growing in fissures and around boulders 

 on glacier pavements. About a thousand feet 

 lower we find the smaller and more abundant P. 

 densa, on ledges and boulder-strewn fissured 

 pavements, watered until late in summer by ooz- 

 ing currents from snow-banks or thin outspread 

 streams from moraines, growing in close sods, 

 — its little bright green triangular tripinnate 

 fronds, about an inch in length, as innumerable 

 as leaves of grass. P. ornithopus has twice or 

 thrice pinnate fronds, is dull in color, and dwells 

 on hot rocky hillsides among chaparral. 



