[Illustration: Slender Cliff Brake. _Cryptogramma Stelleri_]

We have collected this dainty and attractive little fern on the limestone
cliffs of Mt. Horr, near Willoughby Lake, Vt. It grew in a rocky grotto
whose sides were kept moist by dripping water. How we liked to linger near
its charming abode high on the cliff! And we liked also to speak of it by
its pleasing, simple name, "Pellæa gracilis," now changed for scientific
reasons, but we still like the old name better.


(5) THE ROCK BRAKE. PARSLEY FERN

_Cryptográmma acrostichòides_

Sterile and fertile fronds very dissimilar; segments of the fertile, linear
and pod-like; of the sterile, ovate-oblong, obtuse, and toothed. The plants
spring from crevices of rocks and are from six to eight inches high. Stipes
of the fertile fronds are about twice as long as the sterile, making two
tiers of fronds.

[Illustration: Parsley Fern or Rock Brake. _Cryptogramma acrostichoides_
(California and Oregon) (Herbarium of Geo. E. Davenport)]

The parsley fern is the typical species of the genus _Cryptográmma_. The
indusium is formed of the altered margin of the pinnule, at first reflexed
to the midrib, giving it a pod-like appearance, but at length opening out
flat and exposing the sporangia. Clute, speaking of this fern as "the rock
brake," calls it a border species, as its home is in the far north--Arctic
America to Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Colorado and California.