GENERA AND SPECIES. SI 
PLATE XXVII. 
PHEGOPTERIS POLYPODIOIDES. Fée. 
BEECH FERN. 
The Beech Fern is the most easily recognized of all our 
common ferns. ‘The root-stock is a slender, creeping stem, 
sending up, in early summer, a frond about eighteen inches 
in length, including the stipes. The frond is triangular in 
outline, and longer than broad, with the two lower pinnz 
reflexed and pointing forward. It has a somewhat chaffy 
and downy stalk. It grows luxuriantly in all our damp, 
rich woods, its root-stocks trailing under the moss, as in the 
Common Polypody, or penetrating the leaf-mold to the 
depth of a few inches. The fern is difficult to lift, particu- 
larly for transplanting, since the stems are brittle and easily 
broken; but by taking care to get plenty of soil, the plant 
may be moved, and when once settled in its new home 
it grows exceedingly well. It is readily dried, the fronds 
being very thin, and, if carefully preserved, they make 
very handsome specimens, either for the herbarium or for 
decoratiye purposes. 
The Beech Fern is the Polypodium Phegopteris of Lin- 
nus, and of the older botanists; but the reason of its 
removal to a new genus will be apparent from the generic 
description. The plant in the illustration is of natural 
size, though often found much larger. A root-stock of 
Polypodium is given in Plate V, showing the characteristic 
difference between that genus and Phegopteris, where it 
will be observed that the stipe is articulated with the root- 
stock, and not continuous with it, as in the species belong- 
ing to the genus under consideration. 
