AJjLOSOIMJS. 
15 
ALLOSO'EUS CEI'SPUS. 
This has various local names, such as Crisped oi 
Curled Fern, Parsley Fern, Stone Brakes, and Mountain 
Parsley. Names allusive to some one or other of its 
peculiarities. Crisped and Curled refer to the form of 
the leaflets; Parsley, to its resemblance to that plant; 
Stone, to its love of rocky or stony soil; and Mountain, 
to its frequenting Alpine localities. 
Its generic name is derived from the Greek alios, 
diverse, and soros, a heap, referring to the varying 
forms of the patches of its fructification, or sori. The 
Specific name, crispus, or curled, is explained by what 
we have said already relative to one of its English 
names. 
A friend used to call this his “ pet, pit, pot Fern,” 
and of a truth, it is not only most beautiful of form, 
but of that diminutive size which seems so needful to 
entitle anything animate or inanimate to the worthiness 
for being petted. 
The main body of the root lies horizontally just be¬ 
neath the surface of the soil, producing many fibrous 
rootlets. The fronds arise in May, or early in June; 
their stalks are from two to six inches long, slender, 
smooth, waved, and pale green. The leafleted portion 
18 of a further length of from one-and-a-half to three 
tnclies. Thero are two kinds of fronds, one kind being 
barren, and the other fertile. The leaflets of the barren 
fronds are altogether alternate, by which we intend that 
