THE MOUNTAIN PAHS LEY FERN. 
291 
8 . 
THE MOUNTAIN PARSLEY FERN. 
Allosorus crispus. 
Plate 1, Fig. 7. 
0 compare this exceedingly pretty little 
Fern to a tuft of parsley would be to 
give it, perhaps, the best general de¬ 
scription which could be found for it. About 
six inches is its average height; but we ourselves 
have had specimens, brought by a friend from the 
neighbourhood of Creetown, in Scotland, seven 
or eight inches in length: and it is even pos¬ 
sible that larger specimens might be obtained 
from habitats where the conditions of growth are 
unusually favourable. The Parsley Fern has 
two distinct kinds of frond—barren and fertile. 
This distinction in the fronds exists in many of 
our native Ferns; but it is only in some that, 
as in the case of the Parsley Fern, the con¬ 
formation of the fertile fronds is different from 
that of the barren ones. Spores may be present 
