2J0 
the ferx world 
receptacles — those parts of the system of veins to which the 
sori are attached — than as real indusia. Growing wild, it 
is found in damp mountain gorges amongst rocks, as well 
as in higher and more exposed situations. 
Description. — From a short erect caudex, the fronds rise 
in tufts. They are somewhat broadly lance-shaped, the leafy 
portion tapering to the apices, and also, though in a less 
degree, towards the base. In length they range, according to 
circumstances, from a foot to three feet and a half, having- 
stems or stipides much shorter than their leafy portions, and 
furnished with a few light brown scales. Along the racliis 
of the frond the pinna? are arranged in alternation, in form 
somewhat spearhead-shaped, and divided into blnnt-pointed 
pinnules, which in small plants are deeply notched or 
serrated, and in large and finely developed plants are divided 
almost down to the mid- veins. The venation in the pinnules 
consists of the mid- veins just referred to, which are somewhat 
wavy, and of forked venules branching into the lobes or 
serratures of the pinnules, bearing the sori near their ex- 
tremities and mostly close to the inner margins of the lobes. 
There are four or five varieties of this Fern. 
Distribution.— Polypodium alpestre is widely spread 
throughout the countries of Europe. Its resemblance to 
the Lady Fern is at first sight so close that to fix its range 
in Europe as well as in other parts of the world has become 
a matter of some difficulty. Its presence, however, has been 
undoubtedly discovered in Germany, Lapland, Norway, 
Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland. In the British Islands its 
presence has as yet only been discovered in Scotland, in the. 
counties of Aberdeen, Forfar, Inverness, and Perth, occurring 
on mountain ranges up to a height of nearly four thousand 
feet above the sea level. Its first discoverer, Mr. Watson, 
found a specimen of it, from which lie gathered two fronds, 
in July, 1841. This was in the great corrieof Ben Aulder, a 
