CANADIAN FILICINE^. 197 



Macoun. Mountain side west from Hamilton, Out. ; also at Ancaster and Lake Medad. — 

 Judge Logic. Canada (Goldie), to the Saskatchewan (Drummond), in Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am. 



Genus XHI.— PHEGOPTERIS, Fee, Beech-Fekn. 



* Fronds triangular ; rachis winged. 



1. — P. POLYPODIOIDES, Fee, (Common Beech-Fern, Beech-Polypod, Mountain Polypod), 

 Gray, Man., 663. Macoun's Cat., No. 2302. Fowler's N. B. Cat., No. TSl. Ball, Trans. 

 N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., IV, 150. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., II, 21*7. Underwood, Our Nat. 

 Ferns, etc., 101. 



Ph. vulgaris, Mett. 



Ph. connectile, "Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 363. 



Polypodium Phegopteris, L., Swartz, Syn. Fil., 40. Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 208. Pro- 

 vancher, Flor. Can., ^3. Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 269. Hook, and Baker, Syn. Fil., 308. 



Polypodium connectile, Mx., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 2*71. Pursh, II, 659. 



Polystichum Phegopteris, Roth. 



A non-evergreen plant, from 6 to 20 inches high, found in damp, especially rocky, 

 woods and on hillsides, seeming most at home in an atmosphere sixrcharged with mois- 

 ture. Rootstock slender and extensively creeping ; stalks usually longer than the fronds, 

 slender, erect, darkened close to the base but green above, stramineous when dry, and 

 somewhat hairy, especially toward the top ; fronds acuminate, longer than broad (3 to 8 

 by 2 to 6 inches) pinuatifid, hairy on both surfaces, but especially beneath, with scattered 

 scales intermixed ; pinnos sessile, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, deeply pinnatifid, the lowest 

 pair separated from the others and turned obliquely downward and forward ; ultimate 

 segments oblong, obtuse, entire or creuulate, the basal ones decurrent and adnate to the 

 main rachis, on which they form irregular wings ; sori borne near the margin of the seg- 

 ments. 



This seems to be one of the least variable of our ferns. The apices of the fronds or 

 some of the pinnœ are occasionally forked, and specimens are seen remarkably pubescent 

 and scaly along the midribs. 



The Beech-Polypod is commonest in the Eastern Provinces, whence it ranges to west 

 of Lake Superior, and, according to Richardson, to the Saskatchewan, appearing again in 

 the Rocky Mountains. It is also known in places to extend high northward, being found 

 in Greenland south of the Arctic Circle, and on the west coast in Alaska and Unalaska. 

 Common and generally distributed throughout Nova Scotia. — Rev. E. H. Ball. Common 

 in New Brunswick. — Fowler. Common in Quebec. — D' Urban, Brunei, Thomas, Bothicell, etc. 

 Very luxuriant on the Island of Anticosti and shore of the lower St. Lawrence, Que ; 

 abundant around Lake Superior, but iincommon about Lake Nipigon, Ont. ; along Lake 

 Manitoba and the Porcupine Mountains, Man., but rather scarce. — Macoun. Not common in 

 Eastern Ontario, and in the south-western peninsula seems to be replaced by P. hexago- 

 noptera. — Macoun and Burgess. Prescott, Grenville Co., and Osgoode Station, Russell Co., 

 Ont. — B. Billings. Ottawa, Ont., and along the Canada Pacific Railway north of Lakes 

 Huron and Superior. — /. Fletcher. Near the sources of the Columbia on Portage River, 

 Rocky Mountains, Lat. 52". — Drummond. 



