THE ROCK BRAKES. 
THE MOUNTAIN PARSLEY FERN, 
Allosorus crispus ,— Bernhardt. 
Osmunda or Pteris crispa .— Linnaeus. 
Of the Rock Brakes there is but one British species 
— the Mountain Parsley Fern, known at once by its 
likeness to tufts of parsley, and distinctly differing 
from other of our native Ferns in the marked division 
of its sterile and fertile fronds,— the first of which 
have these segments broad, flat, and leaf-like, while 
the second have them involute, or rolled in at the 
margin, covering the sori instead of an indusium. 
The fronds of the Mountain Parsley Fern are annual, 
coming up in May or June, and dying down in the 
autumn, from four to twelve inches high (including 
the stipes), of a lively green, triangular or ovately 
triangular in outline. The barren fronds are generally 
as long as the stipe3, bi or tri-pinnate, and smooth. 
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