The Fern Lover's Companion Part 5

Dry, calcareous rocks, southern New England and westward. Rare. Var.

_cristata_ has forked pinnae somewhat crowded toward the summit of the frond. Missouri.

(2) SMOOTH CLIFF BRAKE

_Pellaea glabella. Pellaea atropurpurea_, var. _Bushii_

Naked with a few, scattered, spreading hairs, smooth surface and dark polished stipes. Rhizome short with membranous, orange or brown scales having a few bluntish teeth on each edge. Pinnae sub-opposite, divergent, narrowly oblong, obtuse; base truncate, cordate or clasping, occasionally auricled; lower pinnae often with orbicular or cordate pinnules. Sterile pinnae broader, bluish or greenish glaucous above, often crowded to overlapping. The smooth cliff brake has a decidedly northern range, growing from northern Vermont to Missouri, and northwestward, but found rarely, if at all, in southern New England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dense Cliff Brake. _Cryptogramma densa_ (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]

(3) DENSE CLIFF BRAKE

_Cryptogramma densa. Pellaea densa_

Modern botanists are inclined to place the dense cliff brake and the slender cliff brake under the genus _Cryptogramma_, which is so nearly like _Pellaea_ that one hesitates to choose between them. The word Cryptogramma means in Greek a _hidden line_, alluding to the line of sporangia hidden beneath the reflexed margin.

The dense cliff brake may be described as follows:

Stipes three to nine inches tall, blades one to three inches, triangular-ovate, pinnate at the summit, and tripinnate below. Segments linear, sharp-pointed, mostly fertile, having the margins entire and recurved, giving the sori the appearance of half-open pods. Sterile fronds sharply serrate. Stipes in dense tufts ("_densa_") slender, wiry, light-brown.

This rare little fern is a northern species and springs from tiny crevices in rocks, preferring limestone. Like many other rock-loving species, it produces spores in abundance, having no other effective means of spreading, and its fertile fronds are much more numerous than the sterile ones, and begin to fruit when very small. Gaspe and Mt. Albert in the Province of Quebec, Grey County, Ontario, and in the far west.

(4) SLENDER CLIFF BRAKE

_Cryptogramma Stelleri. Pellaea gracilis_

Fronds (including stipes) three to six inches long, thin and slender with few pinnae. The lower pinnae pinnately parted into three to five divisions, those of the fertile fronds oblong or linear-oblong; those of the sterile, obovate or ovate, crenulate, decurrent at the base. Confined to limestone rocks. Quebec and New Brunswick, to Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and to the northwest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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, "Pellaea gracilis," now changed for scientific reasons, but we still like the old name better.

(5) THE ROCK BRAKE. PARSLEY FERN

_Cryptogramma acrostichides_

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 _Cryptogramma_. 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.

4. LIP FERNS. _Cheilanthes_

Mostly small southern ferns growing on rocks, p.u.b.escent or tomentose with much divided leaves. Sori at the end of the veins at first small and roundish, but afterwards more or less confluent. The indusium whitish and sometimes herbaceous, formed of the reflexed margin of the lobes or of the whole pinnule. Veins free, but often obscure. Most of the ferns of this genus grow in dry, exposed situations, where rain is sometimes absent for weeks and months. For this reason they protect themselves by a covering of hairs, scales or wool, which hinders the evaporation of water from the plant by holding a layer of more or less saturated air near the surface of the frond. (In Greek the word means _lip flower_, alluding to the lip-like indusia.)

(1) ALABAMA LIP FERN. _Cheilanthes alabamensis_

Fronds smooth, two to ten inches long, lanceolate, bipinnate. Pinnae numerous, oblong-lanceolate, the lower usually smaller than those above.

Pinnules triangular-oblong, mostly acute, often auricular or lobed at the base. Indusia pale, membranous and continuous except between the lobes.

Stipes black, slender and tomentose at the base.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Alabama Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes alabamensis_ (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]

This species of lip fern may be distinguished from all the others within our limits by its smooth pinnae. On rocks--mountains of Virginia to Kentucky, and Alabama, and westward to Arizona.

(2) HAIRY LIP FERN. _Cheilanthes lansa, C. vest.i.ta_

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hairy Lip Fern]

Fronds twice pinnate, lanceolate with oblong, pinnatifid pinnules; seven to fifteen inches tall, slender and rough with rusty, jointed hairs. Pinnae triangular-ovate, usually distant, the ends of the rounded lobes reflexed and forming separate involucres which are pushed back by the ripening sporangia.

This species like the other lip ferns is fond of rocks, springing from clefts and ledges. While hairy it is much less tomentose than the two following species. Unlike most of the rock-loving ferns this species is not partial to limestone, but grows on other rocks as well. It has been found as far north as New Haven, Conn., also near New York, and in New Jersey, Georgia, and westward to Wyoming and southward.

(3) WOOLLY LIP FERN. _Cheilanthes tomentsa_

Fronds eight to eighteen inches long, lanceolate-oblong, tripinnate. Pinnae and pinnules ovate-oblong, densely woolly especially beneath, with slender, whitish, obscurely jointed hairs. Of the ultimate segments the terminal one is twice as long as the others. Pinnules distant, the reflexed, narrow margin forming a continuous, membranous indusium. Stipe stout, dark brown, densely woolly.

By donning its thick coat of wool this species is prepared to grow in the most exposed situations of the arid southwest. It is said to be the "rarest, tallest and handsomest of the lip ferns."

Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky to Georgia, and west to Missouri, Texas and Arizona.

(4) SLENDER LIP FERN

_Cheilanthes Feei, C. lanuginsa_

Stipes densely tufted, slender, at first hairy, dark brown, shining. Fronds three to eight inches long, ovate-lanceolate, with thickish, distinctly articulated hairs, twice or thrice pinnate. Pinnae ovate, the lowest deltoid. Pinnules divided into minute, densely crowded segments, the herbaceous margin recurved and forming an almost continuous indusium.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Slender Lip Fern]

The slender lip fern, known also as Fee's fern, is much the smallest of the lip ferns, averaging, Clute tells us, "but two inches high." This is only one-third as tall as the woolly lip fern and need not be mistaken for it.

The fronds form tangled mats difficult to unravel. It grows on dry rocks and cliffs--Illinois and Minnesota to British Columbia, and south to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pinnae of Slender Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes Feei_ (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]

5. CLOAK FERN. _Notholaena_

Small ferns with fruit-dots borne beneath the revolute margin of the pinnules, at first roundish, but soon confluent into a narrow band without indusium. Veins free. Fronds one to several times pinnate, the lower surface hairy, or tomentose or powdery. Includes about forty species, mostly American, but only one within our limits. (Greek name means _spurious cloak_, alluding to the rudimentary or counterfeit indusium.)

(1) POWDERY CLOAK FERN. _Notholaena dealbata_