The Parsley Fern. 
6i 
undoubtedly very closely united, and in habit and general aspect they are quite similar; the 
recent and careful observations of Milde entirely support Hooker’s view, and from these the 
author referred to states very definitely that the two genera can in no way be retained, and 
that all the forms are referable to the species. 
The Indian form, C. Brunoniana, is an erect, stout plant, of somewhat rigid habit, the 
barren fronds being quite like those of the European form, though the fertile ones more 
resemble those of the American variety : the segments of these are oblong, “ about three lines 
long and one line broad, with the involucre spreading in the mature plant and a space left free 
from fruit in the centre.” This occurs in various parts of Northern India, ascending to thirteen 
thousand feet in the Himalayas. C. acrostichoides, the North American form, of which 
we give a woodcut, is altogether a larger and stronger plant, with thicker and more pro- 
minently veined barren segments, which also are not so deeply cut ; the stipites are more 
robust, and the chaffy scales are longer in proportion ; the fertile pinnules also are larger, 
broader, and more flattened, with the involucre spreading as in the Indian form. This is 
especially a North-West American fern. It was first found by Menzies at Nootka Sound, 
and then by Sir John Richardson in the Hudson’s Bay territory, between fifty-six and sixty 
degrees north. Douglas collected it in 1825-27 in various localities in the Rocky Mountains, 
about the Columbia River : his specimens are certainly more luxuriant than any of the 
European examples we have seen, the fertile fronds being nine inches or more high, and 
stout in proportion. Other North American specimens, however, according to Sir W. Hooker, 
possess quite the European form ; but statements of this kind, after all, seem to depend a good 
deal upon the ideas which those making them have formed of the type of a species ; for 
while the author just quoted says that specimens from Isle Royale, Lake Superior, agree 
entirely with the Parsley Fern of Europe, Professor Asa Gray retains the name acrostichoides 
for the Isle Royale plant, although he says it is “very near A. crispus of Europe.” The 
interest of this locality lies in the fact that it is the only one known for the plant in the 
United States. 
Besides these two forms, which have some claim to be considered distinct, Milde* describes 
two others, A. Stelleri and A. sitchensis. The former is only a depauperated form of A. crispus , 
with a very slender rhizome, and fronds which are sometimes barren at the base and fertile 
towards the apex. This is a native of Siberia and the East, and of India. Milde says that 
he has seen North American specimens which entirely agree with the Asiatic plants. It has 
also been called A. minutus. A. sitchensis, which Milde places between A. acrostichoides and 
A. Brunonianus, has very small, minutely denticulate ultimate segments; it is only known 
from Sitka, but the author already quoted says it is certainly not specifically distinct from 
A. crispus. He also says that he possesses an example of A. crispus from the Salzburg Alps, 
which unites in itself the varieties Stelleri and acrostichoides. The upper part of the frond is 
fertile and the lower barren, while the segments of the barren portion accord with acrostichoides. 
Forms of crispus approaching Brunonianus are, according to Milde, much more frequent ; and 
a careful study of his minute and detailed observations, based, as they evidently are, on the 
examination of a very large series of specimens, seems to point to the accuracy of the con- 
clusion that the whole are but forms of one and the same species. 
It may be interesting to enter upon a somewhat more detailed account of the geographical 
distribution of C. crispa, considering it in its more restricted acceptation, and hence excluding 
from our present estimate the forms just described. 
* “ Filices European et Atlantidis,” p. 26. 
