THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 30, 1856. 213 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
J 
M 
D 
\V 
DECEMBER 30, 1856—JANU¬ 
ARY 5, 1857. 
Weather ni 
Barometer. 
!AR Lon 
Thermo. 
DON IN 
Wind. 
1855. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
30 
Tu 
The Winter Tortrix. 
30.264—30.106 
49—27 
W. 
_ 
9 a. 8 
57 a. 3 
7 26 
3 
8 
1 
365 
31 
W 
Silvester. 
30.220—30.035 
46—29 
s. 
— 
9 
58 
8 51 
4 
3 
30 
366 
1 
Th 
Circumcision. 
29.827—29.793 
46—39 
s. 
— 
8 
IV 
10 a 15 
5 
3 
68 
1 
2 
F 
Primrose (Primula). 
29.659—29.517 
50—36 
S.E. 
01 
8 
0 
11 40 
6 
4 
26 
2 
3 
S 
Snowdrop (Galanthus). 
29.611—29.531 
49—39 
s. 
04 
8 
2 
morn. 
2D 
4 
54 
3 
4 
Sun 
2 Sunday after Christmas. 
29.647—29.600 
47—40 
S.E. 
07 
8 
8 
1 4 
8 
6 
21 
4 
5 
M 
Mezereon (Daphne). 
29.520—29.421 
49—43 
S.E, 
11 
8 
4 
2 30 
9 
5 
48 
5 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 42.6°, and 31.4°, respectively. The greatest heat, 56°, occurred on the 30th, in 1832 ; and the lowest cold, 4°, 
on the 2nd, in 1854. During the period 121 days were fine, and on 75 rain fell. 
POLYPO’DIUM PHEGO'PTERIS. 
i This species, by some botanists, bas been included in 
the following genera— Gymnocarpiim, Lastrcea, and Poly- 
stichum. In every instance, however, they retained the 
specific name, johegopteris, singularly inapplicable as it 
is; for phegos, a Birch - tree, and pteris, literally, the 
Beech Fern, has no reference either to its shape or to its 
haunts, for it is more rarely found in woods than on 
mountains. In English it is known as the Pale 
Mountain Polypody, Mountain Polypody, and Sun 
Fern, names referring to the high and fully-exposed- 
to-the-light situations in which it delights. 
Its root is dark-coloured, thread-shaped, wavy, widely- 
creeping, scaly, and slightly hairy, emitting fibrous 
rootlets in tufts wherever fronds are produced from it. 
Fronds scattered, erect, five to eighteen inches high, , 
sharp-pointed, spear-liead shaped, delicate - textured, 
covered with small hairs. Stem brittle, pale, slender, 
sometimes rather scaly, more than half its length un- 
leafleted. Leaflets sharp - pointed, opposite, the two 
lowest separated widely from those above them, bent | 
forward, and rather hanging down. Most of the leaflets 
are deeply cut into numerous broad segments. Each 
segment is blunt, wavy, somewhat scolloped; sometimes, 
however, entire, covered with fine hairs, and often 
fringed. The uppermost leaflets composing the sharp 
point of the frond are entire, and without segments. 
The mid-vein of each segment is wavy, and more hairy 
than the other parts of the leaflet. The hairs in various 
parts are often in tufts, or starry. The side-veins are 
alternate, usually unbranched, and bearing at their 
upper end, near the margin of the segment, a mass of 
fructification. Each vein does not bear a mass, there¬ 
fore the row is broken. Each mass is naked, circular, 
very small, and pale yellowish-brown. 
It is chiefly found in the clefts of rocks in moist, j 
mountainous situations, sometimes on open, stony moors, | 
and still more rarely in woods, but, wherever found, the 
soil abounds with moisture. 
In England it has been found on rocks above Langley 
Ford, at the foot of the Cheviot Hills; at Cawsey Dean, 
Durham; about Keswick, Cumberland; at Egerton 
Moss, near Bolton, Belle Hag, near Sheffield, at Settle 
and Wensley Dale, Yorkshire; at Prestwicli Clough j 
and Boghart Clough, Lancashire; at Norwood, Surrey ; j 
near Brentford, Middlesex; at Lidford Fall and Beckey 
Fall, Dartmoor, Devonshire; and in the Isle of Man. 
In Wales, near Llanberris, in the first and second 
fields towards Snowdon; Capel Curig, North Wales; | 
and in Caernarvonshire. 
In Scotland, on the Grampians, in Aberdeenshire ; on 
Red Caird Hill, west of Inverness-shire; in Forfarshire, 
Sutherland, Dumbarton, and other parts of the High¬ 
lands ; in Moray and Ross-shire ; on Ben Lomond; at 
Ruberslaw and Jedburgh ; and at Campsie, near Glasgow 
Iu Ireland, on the right hand of Powerscourt Water¬ 
fall; at Waterfall above Lough Eske, in Donegal; and in 
No. CCCCXXNL Vol. XYII 
