Page:Parsons How to Know the Ferns 7th ed.djvu/168

 lighting on the rocks in order to secure some insect, now tilting backward and forward with the comical motion peculiar to them, gliding swiftly along the pebbly shore till their brown and gray and white coats are lost in the brown and gray and white of shore, rock, and water.

In such a retreat as this ravine the Maidenhair Spleenwort seems peculiarly at home.Its tufted fronds have a fresh greenness that is a delight to the eye as they spring from little pockets or crannies too shallow, we would suppose, for the necessary moisture and nourishment. Its near companions are the Walking Fern, whose tapering, leaf-like, blue-green fronds leap along the shelving ledge above, and the Bulblet Bladder Fern, which seems to gush from every crevice of the cliff.

The Green Spleenwort in general appearance resembles the Maidenhair Spleenwort. Perhaps