' T i l
The fronds rise in May, and disappear with the earliest frosts
of winter ; they are fertile and barren. The fertile frond is
nearly triangular ; like that of Adiantum Capillus -Veneris, it is
composed of a number of separate pinnulæ, each on a distinct
foot-stalk : the pinnæ, as well as the
pinnulæ, are alternate. The character
of the barren frond is very various
; its appearance is very crowded
and crisped, like the leaves of parsley,
hut its divisions are intrinsically the
same as those of the fertile frond ; in
both the rachis is slender, smooth,
pale green, and naked for rather
more than half its length ; the colour
of the frond is of a bright and beautiful
green. The upper frond, represented
opposite, is fertile, the other
three are barren, and very various in
the character of their divisions: a
barren pinnula with its veins is shown
at the bottom (fig. e). A fertile pinnula
is represented at fig a, the margins
being rolled over, attenuated, and
somewhat bleached, and covering the
thecæ, as in a state of nature : at
fig. b, one margin is unrolled, showing
the masses of thecæ on that side,
together with their veins : at fig. c, both
margins are unrolled, and the masses
of thecæ, which are perfectly without
indusium, shown in their natural
position. The lateral veins are alternate,
they áre generally forked,
and a mass of thecæ is attachefi at
each extremity ; the veins do not
reach the margin; this is shown at
fig. d. Each of the pinnulæ is somewhat
auricled near the foot-stalk, on
one side only. (See a, b, c, d.) The
masses are composed of very few
thecæ, which renders their form in
some degree uncertain, hut the normal form is circular ; it never
exhibits any tendency to an elongate or linear figure; the attachment
of the thecæ is in itself punctiform.
The Rock Brakes, Bock Parsley, or Parsley-leaved Fern, is
a small plant, generally varying between four and eight inches
in height: where abundant, its bright green fronds form a cheerful
and pleasing contrast to the dark masses of weather-beaten
and lichen-stained rock with which it is almost invariably surrounded.
Although it occasionally condescends to seek a shelter
in the crevices of old stone walls, its favourite site is among the
shapeless masses of stone which are often strewn in such profusion
down the sides of our mountains : except in such situations
we rarely meet with it. In England its favourite habitat
is in the lake district of Cumberland and Westmoreland: in
the midland and southern counties it is entirely unknown ; in
Wales it flourishes in certain spots about the Snowdon range,
hut does not generally abound. In Ireland it is decidedly a rare
plant, and I believe has only been found on the Mourne mountains
by Mr. Mackay, and in the liberties of Carriekfergus by
Mr. Moore. In Scotland,, I believe, it is generally, although
sparingly, distributed. In the course of a walk in the Highlands,
in the summer of 1838, I noted at least forty localities where I
observed it, hut it was invariably in small quantities, generally
a few scattered plants in the old walls, and amongst the stones
shattered down by some convulsive movement of the earth
beneath the summits of the more rugged mountains. One of its
stations is on Ben Arthur, or “ The Cobbler,” the outline of
whose black and rugged summit, which I sketched from near
Arroquliar, is shown in the vignette below.
¥