70 EEECH FERN. 



BEECH FERN, OR MOUNTAIN 

 POLYPODY. 



POLYPODIUM PHEGOPTEEIS. 



\Linnceus, Bentham, and Moore.] 



(Fig. 40.) 



SYNONYMS. 

 POLYSTICHUM PHEGOPTERIS. Roth. 



LASTKEA PHEGOPTERIS. Newman. 



GYMNOCARPIUM PHEGOPTERIS. Newman (B. Ferns). 



THIS is a delicate plant, and disappears with the 

 first frosts of the autumn. It has a slender creeping 

 scaly stem, with black fibrous roots. The fronds ap- 

 pear in May, and are about six inches to a foot long. 

 The stipites are generally twice as long as the leafy 

 part of the frond, and are fleshy and very brittle. 

 The fronds are triangular, extended into a long nar- 

 row point at the top : they are pinnate only at the 

 base. The lower pair of pinnae droop downwards, 

 the rest upwards. The mid-rib, principal veins, and 

 margins of the frond, are more or less hairy on the 

 under side; by which this species may be distinguished 

 from the smaller specimens of Marsh Shield Fern, 

 which it resembles. The soil are small, almost at the 

 margins of the lobes. 



