do more than allude to it here to preclude chiding for an 

 apparent omission. Of these four P. vulgave or the 

 common polypody, as its name implies, is by no means a 

 rarity, and there. is probably not a county in Great Britain 

 in which it is not to be found. In its normal form it has 

 long, somewhat, narrow once divided fronds, consisting of 

 a stalk ranging from an inch or two up to eighteen or 

 twenty inches in length, provided with numerous slender 

 bluntish lobes for rather more than half its extent. These 

 fronds are thoroughly evergreen and of stout leathery 

 texture, so that the fern is not only enabled to hold its own 

 and thrive in the usual shady and sheltered situations 

 where ferns are wont to congregate, but makes its home 

 on the trunk and in the hollows of trees, and on the tops 

 and in the crevices of walls and stone dykes, wherever its 

 -creeping rhizome or rootstock can find an anchorage and a 

 little nourishment. These thick fleshy creeping rhizomes 

 form one of the chief characteristics of the fern, and give 

 it, indeed, its botanical name, Polypodium, meaning many- 

 footed. If suspended in a hanging basket it will speedily 

 find its way out in all directions, and form very pretty 

 specimens. No other British fern has a fleshy creeping 

 root, except the Bracken {Ptevis aquilina), but that, like the 

 other polypodies, the Marsh Fern (Lastvea thelypteris), and 

 the various species of Bladder Fern {Cy stopfer is), all of 

 which have wandering rhizomes too, does not shed its 

 fronds at a joint like P. vulgave, the fronds of which, in the 

 spring, drop freely off, leaving a neat scar, instead of, as 

 do all the others, retaining the ruins of the old frond stems 

 until they actually rot away. In many parts of the 

 country P. vidgave may be found literally lining the hedge- 

 rows and hedge banks with its fronds or rhizomes, 

 revelling in the loose accumulation of leaf-mould. In 

 Epping Forest it is still to be found lurking in out-of-the- 

 way places, in the crowns of the pollard oaks and other 

 trees, and in the moister western counties it peeps out of 



