July 3. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 229 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Weathkrnear London in 1853. 
Day oi 
Year. 
M 
; JULY 3—9, 1855. 
Barometer. Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R. & S. 
Age. 
bf. 
Sun. 
3 
To Acrydium sabulatum. 
| 
29.805— 29.620 72—56 
S.W. 
02 
60 a 3 
18a 8 
11 6 
19 
3 
46 
184 
4 
W Acrydium bipunctatum. 
29 . 620 - 29.556 69—46 
S.W. 
01 
51 
17 
11 21 
20 
3 
57 
185 
5 
Th Lygreus apterus. 
29 . 702 — 29.662 67—47 
S.W. 
06 
51 
17 
11 37 
21 
4 
8 
186 
6 
F Swallow-tail Butterfly. 
29.725—29.695 67—41 
S.W. 
07 
52 
16 
11 51 
<£ 
4 
18 
187 
7 
S Green-veined White Butterfly. 
29 . 743—29722 66—51 
s. 
15 
53 
16 
morn. 
23 
4 
28 
188 
8 
Sun 5 Sunday after Trinity. 
29750 — 29.721 72 — 45 
E. 
05 
54 
15 
0 5 
24 
4 
38 
189 
9 
II Sm. pearl-bor. Fritillary Butterfly. 
29-773—29.723 72—49 
W. 
02 
55 
14 
0 21 
25 
4 
47 
190 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest tern- 
peratures of these days are 75.7°, and 52.3°, respectively. The greatest heat, 97 °, occurred on 
on the 4th, in 1851. During the period 115 days were fine, and on 81 rain fell. 
the 5th, 
n 1852 ; 
and the lowest cold, 37°, 
The next Lardy British Fern, following in the alpha¬ 
betical order, is 
ALLOSO'RUS CRI'SPUS. 
f\ 
This has various local names, such as Crisped or 
Curled Fern , Parsley Fern, Stone Brahes, 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 leafieted portion 
is of a further length of from one-and-a-half to three 
inches. There 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 
they are alternate on the branchlets, and the leafits 
and their lobes are also alternate. 
By “ alternate ” is meant, first on one side, and then 
one on tho other side, each leaflet, leafit, and lobe, being 
opposite to the space between two leaflets, leafits, or 
lobes, on the contrary side. The leafits of tho barren 
fronds are pale bright green, wedge - shaped, finely- 
toothed on the edges, and frequently crisped or curled. 
The fertile fronds are considerably taller than the barren 
fronds, and their leafits are spear-head-shaped, and 
smooth-edged. The fructification, or sori, are in lines 
along the under margin of the leafits, as represented in 
the magnified leafit of our engraving, but the margin is 
so rolled back as to conceal the sori, as on one side of 
the leafit in that engraving. After the spores or seeds 
have ripened and been discharged — which in then- 
native state occurs in September—the sori so spread 
out, that they cover the whole of the back of the leafit, 
except its midrib. 
In our engraving, which is of the natural size, the 
fertile frond is in the centre. 
Allosorus crispus is a Fern rather rare in this country, 
being confined to its northern parts and mountains. It 
affects rocks, heathy places, and old walls. It has been 
found in Rutlandshire; at Tenterfell, near Kendal, in 
Westmoreland; on Cader Idris, in Merionethshire 
and on Snowdon, in Carnarvonshire; at Borrowdale, in 
Cumberland ; and in the Highlands of Scotland. 
It was unknown to old Gerarde aud to his editor 
Johnson, nor do we find any mention of it as a native 
plant until 1690, when Ray, in the second edition of 
No. GCCLIII. Vol. XIV. 
