6o 
European Ferns. 
in memory of the great French naturalist, whose pretensions to botanical knowledge were 
very slender.* 
The p-enus Allosorus was established by Bernhardi in 1806, and then included numerous 
species of ferns. Many of these, however, have been transferred to other genera, and the 
Parsley Fern is now the representative of the genus. The name is derived from two Greek 
words — alios, various, and sorus, a heap, the intention probably being, as Mr. Moore 
observes, “ to indicate the variation in the 
arrangement of the sori occurring among 
the plants originally thought to belong to 
this family. It may also apply to the ap- 
parent difference of arrangement in the sori 
of this plant at different stages of develop- 
ment, the young sori forming distinct roundish 
patches, and the older becoming effused into 
larger shapeless masses.” It may, however, 
perhaps have been intended to refer to the 
difference between the barren and fertile 
fronds. 
In the “ Synopsis Filicum,” following Sir 
W. J. Hooker in the “ Species Filicum,” two 
ferns at one time regarded as distinct from 
the Parsley Fern are placed under it as 
varieties. Milde also follows this arrange- 
ment, while Mr. Thomas Moore opposes it, 
and considers the two plants alluded to to 
be even generically distinct. One of these, 
C. Brunoniana of Wallich, is a native of 
Northern India, ascending in the Himalayas 
to from eleven to thirteen thousand feet : 
the other, C. acrostichoides of Robert Brown, 
is a plant of North, and especially North- 
Western, America. These Mr. Moore con- 
siders as distinct, basing his opinion on the 
difference in the receptacles, which are linear 
and oblique in the two plants just named, 
while in the Parsley Fern they are puncti- 
form. He says, “ We follow Mettenius and others in keeping them distinct, on account 
of the difference in the receptacles, to which we attach considerable importance. In the 
typical species of Cryptogramma, the sori form short lines along a portion of the veins, 
alter the gymnogramnoid type, and these lines being parallel, and near together, unite 
laterally as they become effused, and so form a broad linear mass transverse to the 
veins. In Allosorus, the sori instead of being elongated are punctiform, but they become 
laterally confluent in the same way as in Cryptogramma; and in some states of the 
plant a tendency to elongate is perhaps also to be observed.” The two genera are 
CRYPTOGRAMMA ACROSTICHOIDES. . 3e] 
(1) Fertile Frond. (2) Barren Frond. (3) Pinnule [enlarged). 
this, however, lias been controverted. See “Journal of the Linnean Society,” ii., 183 — 190(1858). 
