476 THE FEEN FAMILY. 



Section 2. 

 Fructification not upon the under surface of the frond. Thecse without a diatinct 



elastic ring. 



* 

 Tructification consisting of little cup-shaped involucres, 

 which project from the edge of very dehcate, pel- 

 lucid, much-divided, and moss-like fronds, two to 

 three inches high, and contain the theca within 

 them 19. Filmy -feek. 



• * 

 Fructification in panicles. 



Fronds three to six feet high, numerous, branched, doubly 

 and triply pinnate, the segments an inch long, 

 broad and flat. Panicle terminal. Many fronds 

 without panicles. (Fig. 206) 20. Osmunda. 



Fronds solitary, three to six inches high, with crescent- 

 shaped lobes. Panicle lateral, and resembling a 

 little bunch of grapes. Every frond with a panicle. 21. Moonwobt. 



• *• 

 Fructification in a linear and tapering spike, which con- 

 sists of two rows of crowded spore-cases, imbedded 

 in the substance of the spike, and occupying its 

 two opposite sides. Leafy pan of the frond soli- 

 tary, two to six inches long, ovate-lanceolate, 



pointed, and entire. Spike two to four inches long. 22. Addeb's-tongue. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 



1. Common Polypody — [Polypddium vulgdre.) 



Dry and mossy hedgebanks ; about the mossy banks of trees, and on 



the bosses of the trunks of aged ones in woods, like a tropical epiphyte ; 



also on rocks, walls, and old thatched roofs, common everywhere. 



Curtis, i. 08; E. B. xvi. 1149. 



A beautiful little evergreen fern, the length of the fronds varj-ing from three to 

 fifteen inches; and the colour of the abundant circular sori, from the palest 

 primrose to the deepest yellow. It was a brilliani golden-spangled specimen of 

 this pretty plant, growing out of an old wall by the roadside ascending to Failand, 

 that first attracted me to scientific botany. 



Several curious varieties are grown in ferneries, especially the doubly piunatifid 

 form called rolypodlum Camhricum. 



2. Beech-fekn — {Polypudium Phegbpteris.) 

 Moist woods, rather rare. Abundant in Mr. Philips' woods, near 

 the viaduct at the upper end of Merc Clough, and more or less so in 



