THE MOUNTAIN POLYPODY, 
or Beech Fern. 
Polypodium Phegopteris. — Linnaeus. 
The Beech Fern is one of the tenderer ferns : pro- 
duced from the perennial rhizome about May, and 
dying off in the autumn or at the first approach of 
frost. It grows abundantly on the slate in moist 
mountainous places and in the shade of damp woods, 
from the coast level to (in the Western Highlands 
of Scotland) an elevation of over 3000 feet. The stem 
is slender, creeps very extensively, and is slightly 
scaly, producing black fibrous roots. From it spring 
delicate hairy pale-green fronds, to the height, when 
full-grown, of from six to twelve inches. The stipes 
is fleshy and very brittle, frequently longer, some- 
times much longer, than the leafy part of the frond, 
having near its base a few small and almost colour- 
less scales. The fronds are triangular, extending to 
a long narrow point ; in the lower part pinnate, — 
but with this division seldom carried beyond the two 
lowest pairs of branches, those of the upper parts of 
the fronds being pinnatifid (connected at the base). 
