THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



ol 



dex." When growing in a position 

 which starves the plants, the stipes 

 are short, but in most shady places 

 the stipes are invariably longer than 

 the leafy portion of the fronds, and 

 the fronds attain a total length of 

 eighteen to twenty - four 

 inches. When growing 

 luxuriantly, the lobes of the 

 frond are usually more or 

 less acute; but when starved, 

 the lobes are blunt and 

 somewhat regularly round- 

 ed at the ends. The re- 

 lative fruitfulness of the 

 fronds is in like manner 

 very much influenced by 

 circumstances. When grow - 

 ing in a rich soil and a 

 moist and shady position, 

 the lobes are nearly all 

 fruitful, and the orange- 

 coloured sori are large and 

 boldly produced, so as to 

 give this fern a truly mag- 

 nificent character in the 

 autumn. But when found 

 on walls and other places 

 less favourable to luxu- 

 rious growth, the fructifi- 

 cation rarely extends be- 

 yond the upper half of the 

 frond, and sometimes not 

 more than oue*third of its 

 whole length. 



This fern is like the 

 genus Homo, capable of 

 living in almost any climate, 

 and of subsisting on any 

 kind of nutriment, yet at- 

 taining its full proportions 

 and proper beauty only 

 under certain conditions 

 that are very easily defined. 

 It is found in all parts of 

 the British Islands, and in 

 all parts of Europe, in the 

 Canaries, Algiers, South 

 Africa, Siberia, Kamschat- 

 ka, Asia Minor, North 

 West America, California, 

 and Mexico. In some 

 districts it grows in such exposed 

 situations as to become quite stunted 

 and deformed ; as, for instance, in 

 Borne parts ofEpping and Hainhaelt 

 forests, where it extends over large 

 tracts of land, as a true epiphyte, 



forming husre tufts in the forks 

 of pollard alders, maples, and oaks, 

 into the decaying wood of which 

 its wiry roots penetrate, and find 

 abundance of nourishment, the 

 starved appearance of the plants 



POLYPODIUM YULGA11E. 



being the result of drought and ex- 

 posure. 



I have severa times proved this 

 to be the true explanation of the 

 dwarfed and altered appearance of 

 those epiphytal plants, having grown 



