62 The Ferx Lover's Compaxiox 



in Greek a hidden line, alluding to the line of sporangia 

 hidden beneath the reflexed margin. 



The dense cliff brake may be described as follows: 



Stipes three to nine inches tall, blades one to three 

 inches, triangular-ovate, jiinnate at the summit, and 

 tripinnate below. Segments linear, sharp-pointed, mo.stly 

 fertile, having the margins entire and recurved, giving the 

 sori the a])])earance of half-open ])ods. Sterile fronds 

 shar])ly serrate. Stipes in dense tufts ("densa") slender, 

 wiry, light-brown. 



This rare little fern is a northern species and springs 

 from tiny crevices in rocks, preferring limestone. Like 

 many other rock-loving species, it jjroduces spores in 

 abundance, having no other effective means of spreading, 

 and its fertile fronds are nuich more numerous than the 

 sterile ones, and liegin to fruit when very small. Gaspe 

 and Mt. Albert in the Province of Quebec, Grey County, 

 Ontario, and in the far west. 



(4) Slender Cliff Urake 

 Cri/piogrdinma Stcllcri. Pellaca gracilis 



Fronds (including stipes) three to six inches long, thin 

 and slender with few pinme. The lower pinnse pinnately 

 ])arted into three to h^•e divisions, those of the fertile fronds 

 oblong or linear-oblong; those of the sterile, obovate or 

 ovate, cremilate, decurrent at the base. Confined to 

 limestone rocks. Quebec and XewBrunswick, to Vermont, 

 Connecticut, Pennsybania, and to the northwest. 



