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PTE RIS crifpa.
Curled or Rock Brakes.
CRYPTOGAMIA Filices.
Gen. Chak. FruLlif. in a marginal continued line.
Invol. formed of the reflexed margin o f the leaf
itfelf^ uninterrupted and burfting inwards.
Spec. Char. Frond thrice pinnate; the barren leaflets
wedge-fhaped, c u t ; the fertile elliptical, obtufe,
convex,.
Syn. Pteris crifpa. Linn. Mss. in Sp. PI. 1522.
W ith . 764. Hull. 243.
Ofmunda crifpa. Linn. Sp. P I. 1522. Hudf. 450.
L ig htf. 655. Bolt. F il. 10. t. 7.
Adiantum album crifpum alpinum. Raii S jn . 126.
T h e dry barren tides of mountains in Weftmoreland,
Wales and Scotland derive no inconfiderable degree of beauty
from the pea-green feathery tufts of this elegant fern, which
fpring out of their ftony crevices, fonretimes in great abundance,
and are ftrikingly different in appearance from every
other Britifh plant of the fame family, looking, when young,
more like the leaves of the umbelliferous tribe. The frufti-
fication is perfected in July, but <e the fear the yellow leaf”
remains to a late period of the year.
The root is fibrous, tufted and perennial. Fronds from 6
to 12 inches high, alternately twice or thrice pinnate, fmooth,
with long fmooth pale ftalks. Leaflets on fhort ftalks; the
barren ones wedge-fliaped, veiny, cut and notched, flat; the
fertile in a feparate frond, elliptical, narrow, obtufe, convex,
undivided, their edges a little waved, turned in, and forming
the membranous wavy covering of the fru&ification. Capfules
annulated as in the preceding.
Nothing can more ftrikingly evince the ignorance of fyfte-
matic botanifts refpedting ferns than their having fo long referred
thefe two fpecies to Ofmunda.