


THE BRITISH FERNS. 
THE MOUNTAIN POLYPODY, or BEECH FERN. 
POLYPODIUM PHEGOPTERIS. 
P. fronds ovate triangular, acuminate, membranaceous, pinnate 
below; pinne lanceolate, the lower pair distinct, sessile, usually 
deflexed, pinnatifid; lobules linear-oblong, blunt; upper pinns® 
confluent; veins hairy beneath. [Plate VIII. ] 
了 PoLYPODIUM PHEGOPTERIS, Zinneus, Sp. Plant. 1550. Bolton, Pil. Brit. 36, 
t. 20. Hudson, Fl. Ang. 456. Smith, Fl. Brit. 1116; Id., Eng. Bot. xxxi. 
t. 2224 and xv. t. 1018, as Aspidium Thelypteris ; Id., Eng. Fl. 2 ed. iv. 269. 
Deakin, Florigr. Brit. iv. 41, fig. 1580. Hooker & Arnott, Brit. Fl. 7 ed. 
581. Babington, Man. Brit. Bot. 4 ed. 419. Bentham, Handb. Brit. Fl. 
626. Lowe, Nat. Hist. Ferns, i. t. 29. Sowerby, Ferns of Gt. Brit. 11, t. 2. 
Moore, Handb. Brit. Ferns, 3 ed. 56; Id., Ferns of Gt. Brit. and Ireland, 
Nature Printed, t. 4. Mackay, Fl. Hib. 337. Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew. 17, 
t. 20. Willdenow, Sp. Plant. v. 199. Sprengel, Syst. Veg. iv. 57. Presl, 
Tent, Pterid. 180. Fries, Sum. Veg. 82. Flora Danica, t. 1241. Ledebour, 
Fl. Ross. iv. 508. Koch, Synops. 2 ed. 974. Gray, Bot. North. U. States, 
590. Nyman, Syll. Fl. Europ. 431. 
PoLYPODIUM CONNECTILE, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Amer. i. 271. Willdenow, Sp. 
Plant. v. 200. 
POLYPODIUM LATEBROSUM, Salisbury, Prod. 403. 
POLYSTICHUM PHEGOPTERIS, Roth, Fl. Germ. iii. 72. 
LASTREA PHEGOPTERIS, Bory, Dict. Class. d Hist. Nat. ix. 233. Newman, 
Nat. Almanac, 1844, 17 ; Id., Brit. Ferns, 2 ed. 13. 
PHEGOPTERIS POLYPODIOIDES, Fee, Gen. Fil. 243. 
PHEGOPTERIS -VULGARIS, Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Bot. Lips. 83. J. Smith, Cat. 
Cult. Ferns, 17. 
GYMNOCARPIUM PHEGOPTERIS, Newman, Phytol. iv. 371; Id., 1851, Appendix, 
xxiii ; Id., Hist. Brit. Ferns, 3 ed. 49. 

Caudex creeping extensively, branched, tough, slender, about the 
thickness of a straw, dark-brown, pilose and slightly scaly while 
young, the older portions denuded both of scales and hairs. Scales 
lanceolate, golden-brown, intermixed with other cobwebby hair-like 
ones. Fibres numerous, much branched, dark-brown, invested with 
cobwebby deciduous pubescence. 
Vernation circinate ; the pinnæ rolled up separately towards the 
rachis, which is then rolled from the point downwards. 
Stipes as long as, or more frequently longer, often much longer than 
the frond, erect, brittle, pale-green, furnished near the base with a 

