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PO L Y P O D IUM Phegopteris.
Pale Mountain Polypody.
t0) '
CRYPTOGAM1A Hikes.
Gen. Char. Fructifications scattered, in roundish dots,
not marginal, lnvolucrum none.
Spec. Char. Frond pinnated : leaflets lanceolate,
pointed, pinnatifid, united at their base ; the lower
pair reflexed.
Syn. Polypodium Phegopteris. Linn. Sp. PL 1550.
Sm. FI. Brit. 1116. Huds. 456. With. 775.
Hull. 238. Lightf . 669. Winch, v. 1. 95. Bolt.
F il. 36. t. 2 0 . Ehrh. Crypt. 131.
P. n. 1698. Hall. Hist. v. 3. 12.
Filix minor britannica, pediculo pallidiore, alis inferi-
oribus deorsùm spectantibus. Dill, in Raii Syn. 122.
STONY rather moist places, on mountains in the south of
Scotland and north of England, produce this delicate fern;
but it is certainly not, as its Greek specific name imports, a
native of our Beech woods, at least not of those of the midland
counties. We have gathered it in Westmoreland, not
only in the shade, but sometimes on open stony moors, where
it cannot fail to attract the notice of a botanist by its upright
position, pale delicate aspect, whitish stalk, and especially the
dependent posture of the two lowermost leaflets or wings.
Very rarely it grows in considerable patches, more frequently
scattered, having a creeping root. Each plant is about a foot,
or more, in height, with a very long, slender, naked, smooth,
brittle stalk. Principal pinnatifid leaflets about ten pair, not
exactly opposite, though sessile and slightly united at their
base, and yet not decurrent. They join about as many simple,
gradually shorter, and finally entire ones, above them, surmounted
by a taper point. All are fringed and besprinkled
with pale soft hairs on-both sides, which are often clustered,
somewhat stellate, on the rib at the back. The capsules form
little round naked yellowish dots, about the lower part of the
edges of the segments,