No. 77. POLYPODIUM. 67 



V 



easily known by its lanceolate leaves, with a black spot 

 above, and oblong spikes of red flowers. The P. hydro- 

 piperoides^ P. amphibitim^ P. pennsylvanicnmj &c. are 

 equally medical and equivalent to P. persicaria. 



No. 77. POLYPODIUM VULGARE. 



Names. Common Polypody. Pn Polypode common. 

 Vulgar* Fern Root, Rock Brake, Brake Root, Female 

 Fern. 



Classif. Nat. Order of Ferns. Cryptogamia Fi- 



lices, L. 



Genus Polypodium. Fern with round scattered 

 sores or clusters of capsules under the frond, without 



involucrum. 



Sp. Polypodium vulgar e. L, CauHex chaffy, stipe 

 smooth, frond deeply pinnatifid, segments linear lanceo- 

 late, obtuse, crenulate, approximate, the upper ones 



smaller. 



DESCRIPTION. Root perennial, creeping, irregu- 

 lar, brown, with chaffy scales extending to the caudex 

 or base of the stipe- Frond six to twelve inches high, 

 distiched as usual in ferns, deeply cut in approximated 

 seorments j oblong or lanceolate, obtuse, smooth, cre- 



nulate, upper ones gradually coherent and smaller. 

 Lower surface wnth two rows of sores on each seg- 

 ment, round, naked, brown, formed by a crowd of 

 small capsules. 



HISTORY. This genus was formerly very exten- 

 sive, but now contains, since the reform of the ferns, 

 the species without involucrum j the others forming the 

 genera, ^spidiuniy Nephrodium^ HypopeUw^&ic. Xin- 

 n^us had called our American plant P. virginicum^ but 

 it is a mere variety of the European. It grows on rocks 

 from Canada to Carolina ; the varieties are, 1. Leviga- 

 turn* 2. MuUicaute. 3. Latifolium^ &c. 



PROPERTIES- The root is the officinal part; it 

 has a sweet mucilaginous taste j it is pectoral, demul- 

 cent, purgative and vermifuge- The syrup of it is very 



