152 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



Three species of Cheilanthes, — Californica, 

 gracillima, and myriophylla, with beautiful two 

 to four pinnate fronds, an inch to five inches 

 long, adorn the stupendous walls of the canons, 

 however dry and sheer. The exceedingly deli- 

 cate and interesting Californica is rare, the 

 others abundant at from three thousand to seven 

 thousand feet elevation, and are often accom- 

 panied by the little gold fern, Gymnogramme 

 triangularis, and rarely by the curious little 

 Botrychium simplex, the smallest of which are 

 less than an inch high. 



The finest of all the rock ferns is Adiantum 

 pedatum, lover of waterfalls and the lightest 

 waftings of irised spray. No other Sierra fern 

 is so constant a companion of white spray-covered 

 streams, or tells so well their wild thundering 

 music. The homes it loves best are cave-like 

 hollows beside the main falls, where it can float 

 its plumes on their dewy breath, safely sheltered 

 from the heavy spray-laden blasts. Many of 

 these moss-lined chambers, so cool, so moist, 

 and brightly colored with rainbow light, contain 

 thousands of these happy ferns, clinging to the 

 emerald walls by the slightest holds, reaching 

 out the most wonderfully delicate fingered fronds 

 on dark glossy stalks, sensitive, tremulous, all 

 alive, in an attitude of eager attention ; throb- 

 bing in unison with every motion and tone of 

 the resounding waters, compliant to their faint- 



