32 PERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



it on any other part of tlie island. The place where it 

 grows is unfrequented, and I do not think it is possible 

 it should be anything but wild." 



This fern requires a sandy loam or other Hght soil 

 when cultivated, and must be kept in shadow and in 

 a moist atmosphere. At the latter end of summer its 

 fronds arise from the seed sown in spring, and are very 

 small and usually barren ; but, early in the following 

 year, some taller fronds gradually develop themselves, 

 and these are, when fully grown, about three or four 

 inches high, and extremely delicate in texture. They 

 are twice or thrice pinnate; the pinnae and pinnules 

 alternate or opposite ; the end pinnules bluntly wedge- 

 shaped or rounded, about three-lobed, the lobes ter- 

 minating with two blunt teeth. The pinnule has- a 

 mid-vein, from which issues a forked vein, on which the 

 cluster of fructification is placed, a part of the cluster 

 occupying each branch of the vein, so that the cluster 

 itself is forked ; after a time, however, the fructification 

 forms a mass over the whole under siuface of the 

 pinnules. 



3. Allosorus (Rock-brake). 



1. A. crispus (Curled Rock-brake, Mountain Parsley, or 

 Rock Parsley). — Barren /roM(&, twice or thrice pinnate; 

 segments wedge-shaped, linear, oblong ; segments of the 

 fertile frond oblong. Many persons visiting the lakes 

 at the north of England bring back with them a few 

 fronds of this elegant little fern; and it is so beau- 

 tiful in outline, and often renders the rocks so richly 



