3C PAESLEY FEEN. 



Pteris crispa, {Linn. MSS.) ; With. An: 76 i ; Sm. E. F. iv. 

 319, E. B. 1160. 



Ciyptogramma crispa, Maclt. Fl. Hib. 318; Franc. 57; Hook, 

 and Am. 575. 



Allosorus crispus, (Bern.) ; Neivm. N. A. 13, F. 103; Bab. 

 408 ; Moore, 58. 



This species appears to have perplexed botanists greatly as 

 to the genus in which it ought to be placed. Linneus made 

 it an Osmuuda ; but in a MS. note to his private copy of the 

 ' Species Plantarum,' he transfers it to Pteris. By a reference 

 to the preceding list of synonymes, it will be seen that our 

 British authors, Lightfoot, Hudson, and Bolton, adopt his first 

 view, Withering and Smith his second. 



The figures of this very pretty little fern are generally cha- 

 racteristic : those in Bolton's ' Filices ' (tab. 7), the ' Flora 

 Danica' (tab. 496), and 'English Botany' (tab. 1160), are very 

 praiseworthy. Our old friend, Gerarde the herbalist, seems to 

 have omitted it altogether, nor can I find it in Parldnson ; but 

 the ' British Herbal,' to which I have already alluded, describes 

 and figures the species very tolerably. 



Roth makes this fern an Onoclea, associating it with O. Stru- 

 thiopteris, the Struthiopteris germanica of later writers; his 

 description of the fructification is admirably clear and correct, 

 in this respect differing from that of all his predecessors. By 

 three eminent botanists it has been made the type of a new 

 genus, namely, by Bernhardi, under the name of Allosorus ; by 

 Desvaux, under the name Phorobolus ; and by Robert Brown, 

 under the name Cryptogramma. Of these three names, Allo- 

 sorus has been adopted on the ground of priority, by Sprengel, 

 George Don (in Loudon's 'Hortus Britannicus'), Sadler, Presl, 

 the compilers of the ' Edinburgh Catalogue,' and Babington ; 

 and Cryptogramma by Hooker and Mackay. 



As far as our very imperfect knowledge of fern-geography 

 extends, the parsley fern is confined exclusively to Europe. It 

 is recorded in one or other of the continental Floras as a native 

 of Norway, Lapland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, 



