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 (Phegopterts hexagonoptera) 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 latterare pinnate with deeply pin- 
natifid pinne. The blades are usually broader than 
long and the pinne are also broader, approaching a lanceo- 
late form, in this differing from the common beech fern. 
The lowest pair of pinne 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 pinne 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- 
