THE POLYPODIES. 187 



in, covering its rhizome lightly with the mould. We 

 then placed the pah upon a large red clay saucer, 

 and poured water on the roots until the saucer 

 underneath was full. We continued this process 

 from time to time, never allowing the rhizomes of 

 our Polypody to become dry, and always keeping 

 the saucer underneath the pan full of water. We 

 have our reward in the grand development of the 

 plant. The fronds have exceeded by one inch 

 their maximum growth when we found them in 

 their wild habitat. The seed-pan is crowned with 

 a mass of rich, vigorous fronds, nineteen inches in 

 length. The old fronds had all got broken off 

 before we planted our specimen ; so that its present 

 ones are all the new growth under the conditions 

 which we have described. 



But now for some detailed description of this 

 delightful fern. The Common Polypody is dis- 

 tributed very generally throughout the United 

 Kingdom. In the forks of trees ; on pollard 

 trunks ; on garden walls and old ruins ; in the 

 moist crevices of rocks in mid river; on moss- 

 covered hedge-banks; almost everywhere on eleva- 



