Plate 6. 
POLYPODIUM (§ Phegoptebis) alpestke, Hoppe. 
Alpine Polypody. 
Polypodium (Phegopteris) alpestre; glabrous; caudex oblique, fronds oblong- 
lanceolate, bipinnate ; pinnules oblong-ovate, sometimes slightly falcate, sub¬ 
acute, sessile, more or less deeply pinnatifid, segments ovate, inciso-serrate; 
sori globose, placed near the sinus on the margin ; stipes short, with large 
spreading scales. 
Polypodium alpestre. Hoppe, in Spreng. Syst. Veget. v. 4. c.p. p. 320. Koch, Syn. 
FI. Germ.v. 2. p. 974. “ Henfreyin Francis' Anal, of Brit. Ferns, ed. 5. p. 28. 
Suppl. FI. f. 2 A." Sowerby, Ferns of Gt. Brit. p. 84. t. 49. Moore, Brit. 
Ferns , Nat. Print, t. 6*. Hook, and Am. Br. FI. ed. 8. p. 581. 
Phegopteris alpestris. Metten. Fil. Hort. Lips. p. 83 ; Phegopt. p. 10. 
Aspidium alpestre. Sw. Syn. Fil. pp. 42, 59. Willd. Sp. Plant, v. 5. p. 280. 
Schk. Fil. p. 5S. t. 60 (A. umbrosum on the Plate), excellent ( excl. syn. 
Linn .). 
Aspidium rhoeticum. Sw. in Sclvrad. Jonrn. 1800. v. 2. p. 41. Syn. Fil. p. 59. 
Willd. Sp. Pl.v. 5. p. 280 (excl. syn. Linn.). 
Polypodium rhoeticum. Pillars. Pallas, It. “ 2. p. 28.” Ledeb. FI. Boss. v. 4. 
p. 510. Fries, Summa Veget. p. 82. 
Athyrium rhoeticum. Both, Tent. Germ. v. 3. t. 67. 
Pseudathyrium alpestre. Newm. 
Asplenium alpestre. Metten. Asplen. p. 198. 
Var. flexile, Moore, Brit. Ferns, 1. c.; stipes scarcely any, pinnae short, ovato- 
lanceolate, spreading or deflexed, pinnules distant. (Tab. Nostr. Fig. 5.) 
Polypodium flexile. Moore, Handb. of Brit. Ferns, p. 225. 
Pseudathyrium flexile. Newm. 
Hub. Moist rocky glens, in the mountains of Forfarshire. I possess fine speci¬ 
mens from Mr. Jas. Backhouse, Jun., gathered in Clova ; and of var. /3, from 
Glen Prosen, Ben-y-Mac-Dhui, and other places in Braemar, Mr. Croall. 
This is a very distinct and well-marked species of Folypodium , 
and cannot easily be confounded with any other of the Fheyopteris 
group, whether British or exotic. Indeed there is more danger 
of its being mistaken for Asplenium ( Athyrium) Filix-fcemina, and 
we have reason to believe that before it was recognized among 
us as a species, it had been gathered or heedlessly passed by for 
that plant. Schkuhr represents a rather broad, brown, convex 
involucre, such as might belong to an Athyrium rather than an 
Aspidium or Lastrea; but no author has since recognized such 
