BEECH FERN. 
121 
name of Phegopteris, seems very inappropriate, as was observed 
by Sir J. E. Smith, and I feel quite at a loss to discover the rea- 
son for either having been employed : both of them convey an 
obviously incorrect impression, as neither the character nor lo- 
calities of the fern have any connection with the beech tree. 
Nearly all authors are agreed on the scientific name of this spe- 
cies, and have referred it to the genus Polypodium, distinguished 
by circular clusters of capsules, and by the total absence of an 
involucre ; but this character can only be applied in doubt to this 
and the following species, for Roth, than whom we have had no 
more careful or accurate observer, unhesitatingly states that both 
species possess an involucre, and he therefore refers them both 
to his genus PolystichumJ^ 
This involucre I have hitherto been unable to detect ; still al- 
though the presence or absence of an involucre may remain a 
question for future investigation, it must be admitted by all bo- 
tanists capable of forming an opinion, that the species before us 
would associate much more naturally with Oreopteris and The- 
lypteris than with the common polypody, its present congener. 
The roots of the beech fern are black and fibrous, its rhizoma 
wiry, tough and creeping. The fronds are thrown up in May, 
rising on erect, succulent, and very brittle stems, clothed with a 
few pale scattered scales. I have taken some pains to represent 
these young fronds at page 115, in every stage of development. 
They unfold with wonderful rapidity, attain perfection in July, 
and are destroyed by the early frosts on the approach of winter. 
The position of the frond is at first nearly horizontal, afterwards 
pendulous ; its size varies from that of the frond represented in 
* Polystichum Phegopteris. Fructification um puiicta subrotunda distincta, 
nunquam confluentia, ad marginem laciniarum infra medium sparsa, ex albido 
flavescentia, tecta Involucre tenui, membranaceo, albido, peltate, capsulis ma- 
turis parum elevate, et ad punctum centrale fixum contracto demum ob capsu- 
las supereminentes plane obliterate. * * * In plerisque filicibus capsulae 
rupte Involucre elFunduntur pedunculis suis divergentibus et curvatis. In 
hoc vero Polysticho capsulae minus elFunduntur sed solute involucre peduncu- 
lis rectis in altum tolluntur quo facto involucrum ad punctum centrale fixum 
contractum, demum plane obliteratur, relicta plerumque in centre acervuli 
capsularum foveola. — Roth, Flor. Germ. iii. 73. 
