THE COMMON POLYPODY 
Rhizome creeping, tortuous, branched, 
lanceolate, very much acuminated, crowded, at length deciduous, leaving 
smooth and greenish, Fibres b tomentose, densely matted over the surface. t 
rhizome is fixed 
Stipes variable, often nearly or quite as long as the frond, sometimes much shorter, as well as the 
rachis rooved in front, naked, at the base articulated with the rhizome 
Vernation eircina 
Frond from two to eighteen inches long, lateral to the rhizome, subcoriaceous, of 
green, paler beneath ; varying in outline from triangular-ovate when small, to ovate-oblong and linear 
oblong, the latter being the fully developed condition of t jes in its normal state ; very deeply 
less drooping. Lobes or segments linear-oblong, parallel, flat, bluntish or 
pinnatifid, usually mor 
and more crowded or confluent ne mes terminates abruptly, but is usually 
the branches (тейи) are again branched, producing from three to five alternate branchlets 
Fructifcation on the back of the frond, usually confined to its upper part, the sorus originating at the 
apex of the veinlot ; at first a naked depressed scarcely visible spot, and from the earliest period at 
which it becomes visible quite destitute of any membranous cover, or indusium. Sori or clusters of 
spore-cases circular, rarely somewhat oblong, quite exposed, arranged in a linear series on each side th 
midvein; at first distinet, often crowded and finally confluent, Spore-eases yellow or orange of various 
hades, becoming tawny, numerous, h a slender stalk of elongated cells, Spores yellow 
muriculato or corrugate, oblong or kidney-shaped 
Dur The rhizome is perennial, The fronds are produced about the end of May, and are 
persistent through the winter and until after new fronds are produced, ко that the plant is evergreen 
& Other fronds are produced later in thi 
‘This common plant is the type of the Linnean genus Polypodium. ‘There are certainly no grounds 
other than the fancies of name-makers by season of which that 
nus should be abolished, altho 
or its reduction by divesting it of ill-assorted species. We cannot therefor 
writers who, adopting the name used for 
ional distinction by Blume and Pres, 
wo dium. Wha 
over additional names the introduction of modern syste assiication may render necessary, it i 
clearly not permissible that tho names of type species of bond fide established genera, where these can 
Бе recognised, as in this caso, should be wantonly remodelled, Those who are easily led either to mak, 
or to adopt changes of this nature, should remember, that names are not the ultimat, 
The common Polypody diffors essentially from all the other British 
having its fronds articulated with the rhizomo—that is, attached in such а manner that they t 
taneously as they approach decay. Its texture, too, is stouter and firmer than that of the native 
species which are allied to it by their fructification. In its normal form, it is, moreover, loss divided dan 
they. "The small specimens produced! on walls, and in other dry exposed ріш Secu aad 
but in situations where it grows with more vigour, the plant becomes dro 
