202 THE POLYPODIES. 



and Asia. It takes readily to cultivation and is excellent 

 for planting on rockeries, each small bit of rootstock 

 soon producing a thrifty colony. 



The Broad Beech Fern. 



The indiscriminating collector might gather the broad 

 beech fern (Phegopteris hexagonopterci) for many seasons 

 and not surmise that he had anything more than the 

 common species, so near alike are they in shape, habit 

 and the cutting of the fronds. The differences, however, 

 are quite apparent when once pointed out and all botanists 

 agree that each is a distinct species. 



The broad beech fern is a lover of the deep shady 

 woodlands and cares nothing for rocks. It delights in 

 moist soil, but does not avoid dryish shades and is often 

 to be found in the company of the New York fern. The 

 rootstock is slender and creeping and the fronds are 

 scattered along it at short intervals. The slender, erect, 

 straw-coloured stipes are nearly twice the length of the tri- 

 angular blades and the latter are pinnate with deeply pin- 

 natifid pinnae. The blades are usually broader than 

 long and the pinnae are also broader, approaching a lanceo- 

 late form, in this differing from the common beech fern. 



The lowest pair of pinnae are much the largest, broadly 

 lanceolate, narrowed at base with narrow, crenulate- 

 toothed or lobed segments, the longest nearly an inch in 

 length. They may sometimes be deflexed though com- 

 monly they are not. The decurrent pinnae form a con- 

 spicuous angled wing along the rachis that usually extends 

 to the lower pair. The sori are borne on the backs 

 of ordinary fronds. They are mostly near the margins 

 of the segments and rather small. 



This species averages somewhat larger than the com- 



