GROUP VI 



FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 

 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



and affects us somewhat as the sight of them 

 might do." 



49. LONG BEECH FERN 



Phegopteris polypodioides (P. Phegopteris) 



Newfoundland to Alaska, south to mountains of 

 Virginia, wet woods and hill-sides. Six or eight inches 

 to more than a foot high. 



Fronds. — Triangular, usually longer than broad 

 (4-9 inches long, 3-6 inches broad), downy, especially 

 beneath, thin, once-pinnate ; pmnn lance-shaped, the 

 lower pair noticeably standing forward and deflexed, 

 cut into oblong, obtuse seg- 

 ments ; fruit-dots small, round, 

 near the margin ; indusium, 

 none. 



Of the three species 

 of Phegopteris native to 

 the northeastern States 

 P. polypodioides, com- 

 monly called the Long 

 Beech Fern, is the one 

 I happen to have en- 

 countered oftenest. 



It is a less delicate 

 plant than either of its 

 sisters, the effect of the 

 larger and older specimens being 

 rather hardy, yet its downy, often 

 light-green, triangular frond is ex- 

 ceedingly pretty, with a certain od- 

 dity of aspect which it owes to the 



187 





Long Beech Fern 



