MOUNTAIN POLYPODY, 



OR BEECH FERN. 



Polypodium Phegopteris. 



The Beech Fern is one of the tenderer 

 ferns : produced from the perennial rhi- 

 zome about May, and dying off in the 

 autumn or at the first approach of frost. 

 It grows abundantly on the slate in moist moun- 

 tainous places and in the shade of damp woods, from 

 the coast level to (in the Western Highlands of 

 Scotland) an elevation of over 3000 feet. The stem is 

 slender, creeps very extensively, and is slightly scaly, 



