202 POLY PODIUM ALPESTRE. 
POLYPO'DIUM ALPE'STRE. 
THIS, until a few years since, was unnoticed as a British 
Fern, apparently because it lias the aspect, unless closely 
inspected, of Athyrium filix-fcemina. It has been called 
Polypodium rhccticum and Pseudathyrium alpestre ; but 
we know of no other English name than Alpine Poly- 
pody, & name very appropriate, because it is found only 
in mountain glens at high elevations. 
Root, in its wild state, lying down, much branched, 
with a tuft of fronds at the end of each branch. Fronds, 
from one to three feet high, in circular tufts; their 
stem rather swollen at the base, and only about one- 
fifth of its length bare of leaflets, this bare part having 
a few brown, broad, pointed scales. The general out- 
line of the frond is narrow spear-head-shaped ; leaflets 
alternate, and their leafits, like the frond, narrow spear- 
head shaped, on short stalks, at right angles with the 
stalk of the leaflet, deeply cut at their edges, and each 
section sharply toothed ; their mid-vein zigzag, and 
with lateral veins branching Into each section, beariug a 
mass of fructification at the end of one of their branches 
midway between the mid-vein and edge of the leafit. 
Each mass is circular, generally distinct, but sometimes 
running together. 
This Fern was first discovered in the British Isles by 
Mr. H. C. Watson, who, in 1841, found it on Ben 
Aulder, in Inverness-shire, and iu Caulocken Glen, For- 
farshire. It has since been found on the Clova Moun- 
