THE MOUNTAIN POLYPODY, or BEECH FERN.
POLYPODIUM PH EGO PT ER IS .
P. fronds ovate triangular, acuminate, membranaceous, pinnate
below; piimæ lanceolato, the lower pair distinct, sessile, usually
doflexod, pinnatifid; lobules linear-oblong, blmit ; ujipcr pinnæ
confluent; veins hairy beneath. [Plate V I I I .]
POLYPODIC.M PiiEGorTEiiis, Liimæus, Sp. Plant. 1550. Boltmi, PH. Brit. 36,
t. 20. Iluclson, FI. Aug. 456. Smith, FI. Brit. 1116 ; Id., Eng. Bot. x x x i.
t. 2224 a n d XY. t . 1018, as Aspidimn Thelypteris ; Id., Eng. FI. 2 cd. iv. 269.
Deakin, Florigr. Brit. i r . 41, tig. 1580. Hooker Æ Arnott, Brit. FI. 7 ed.
581. Babington, Man. Brit. Bot. 4 ed. 419. Bentham, Handb. Brit. FI.
026. Loloe, Nat. Hist. Ferns, i. t . 29. Sowerby, Ferns of Ot. Brit. 11, t . 2.
Moore, Haidb. Brit. Ferns, 3 ed. 56 ; Id., Ferns of Ot. Brit, and Ireland,
Nature Printed, t . 4. Maekay, FI. llib. 337. Schkuhr, Krypt. Oew. 17,
t . 20. Wnideiww, Sp. Plant. Y. 199. Spraujel, Syst. Veg. iv. 57. Presl,
Tent. Pterid. 180. Fries, Sum. Veg. 82. Flora Panica, t . 1241. Ledebour,
FI. Boss. ÌY. 608. Koch, Synops. 2 ed. 974. Oray, Bot. North. TJ. States,
590. Nyman, Syll. FI. Europ. 431.
F o ly p o d ium c o n n e c t i l e , Michaux, PI. Bor. Amer. ii. 271. Willdenow, Sp.
Plant. Y. 200.
P o ly p o d ium l a t e b e o s u m , Salisbury, Prod. 403.
PoLYSTienUM PiiEGOPTEEis, Both, PI. Germ. iii. 72.
L a s t r e a P i i e g o p t e r l s , Bory, Diet. Class. I Hist. Nat. ix . 233. Newman,
Nat. Almanac, 1844, 17 ; Id., Brit. Ferns, 2 ed. 13.
P h e g o p t e r i s p o ly p o d io id e s , Fie, Gen. Pit. 243.
P h e g o p t e r i s v u l g a r i s , Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Bot. Lips. 83. / . Smith, Oat.
Cult. Ferns, 17.
G ym x o c a e p ium P h e g o p t e r i s , Newman, Phytol. iy . 371 ; Id., 1851, Aprpeidix,
x x iii. ; 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-liko
ones. Fibres numerous, much branched, dark-brown, invested with
cobwebby deciduous puhosoenco.
Vernation circinate ; the pinnæ rolled up separately towards the
raohis, which is thon 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 tho base with a
few lanceolate acuminate pale-brown deciduous scales, and on the
upper part with a few scattered subulate ones, clotbcd along the
wbole length ivith minute reversed hairs ; distant and lateral on tho
caudex. i j-
Fronds from four to eighteen or twenty inches in length, including
the stipes, adherent to tho rhizomo, momhranaceo-horhaccons, _ ot
a duU pale-green, hairy, ovate-triangular, much acnminato, pinnate
below, the apical portion pinnatifid. Pinnm deeply pinnatifid,
linoar-acuminate, nearly or quite opposite ; the lower pair lanceolate,
doflexod, distant from the upper, sessile, hut attached only by
their rachis ; upper piimæ sessile and broadly attached and, except
occasionally the second pair, confluent, so th a t tho two basal lobules
of tho bases of the opposite pairs, unite to form a cruciform figure.
The upper pinnæ have their points directed towards the apox of tho
frond, and their docurrent bases are continuous along the rachis.
Lobules ohlong-ohtusc, entire, or slightly crenato-doiitate, directed
towards the apex of the pinnæ.
Venation of the lobules consisting of a slender flexuous tmdmn,
from which proceed alternate or sometimes opposite veins; those
veins extend to the margin of the lobule, and arc cither simple or
become ouco forked about half-way their length; the veins when
simple, or when divided, the anterior venules, boar a sorus at a short
distance from the edge of tho lohnlc. , , , n
Fruotifioation on the back of tbo frond, scattered almost equal y
over the whole surface. Sort circular, small, quite destitute o
covering, arranged in a series near the margin of the lobules, and
often becoming confluent in lines, m e r e tbe fructification is but
partiaUy developed, only one or two of tho lowermost veins are
fertile, iu which case the marginal series of son is not very manifest.
Spore-cases small, numerous, pale-browii. Spores ovate, smooth.
Duration. T h e rH zom e is p e rennial. T h e fronds a re a n n u a l ;
produced about May, and destroyed hy the early frosts of autumn.
This F cm is readily known from its congeners hy its outline, which
is ovate-triangular with au elongated narrow point ; hy tho^pmnato-
pinnatifid mode in which its fronds are divided ; by the hairiness of
its surface ; and by tho dirootion of its pinnæ.
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