178 
BRITISH FERNS. 
Mr. Newman calls it Eupteris ; it is the Filix-foemina 
of old authors. 
CRYPT O GRAMME . 
39. Cryptogramme crispa, Er. Parsley Fern, or 
Rock Brake. 
Caudex short, thick, scaly. Stems numerous. Fronds of two 
kinds : barren ones bipinnate, fertile ones tripinnate below. 
Leaflets oblong, obtuse. Sori roundish or oblong. Involucres 
formed of the substance of the frond, turned back at the margin, 
spreading in age from the swelling of the sori. 
The Parsley-fern, called Cryptogramme by Sir William 
Hooker and others, and Allosorus by many older authors, 
has numerous fibrous roots 
which adhere closely to the 
earth or rock-cleft ; a caudex 
which extends itself horizon- 
tally, though it can hardly 
be said to creep ; and fronds 
of two kinds, differing in their 
height, the length of their 
stems, and the form of their 
leaflets. The barren frond is 
leafy, the stem is rather more 
than half the length of the 
frond, and the leaflets are cut 
into three lobes. The fruitful 
frond is half as tall again as the barren one, the stem 
is longer in proportion, and the leaflets are narrow from 
the margin being rolled in to form an involucre for the 
crowded lines of sori. 
This fern is an ornamental object among the rocks 
I 
