LIST OP LAKE FERNS 15 



rennial. It is one of the commonest ferns, found 

 everywhere, on the coast line, and (in the Scottish 

 Highlands) at the height of 2,100 feet, very abundant 

 and handsome in the Lake District, abundant also 

 throughout Europe, and the north of Africa, found also 

 in Caffraria, in northern Asia from the Ural Mountains 

 to Japan, and widely dispersed in North America. 

 Its medicinal reputation is as old as Pliny, who says 

 that the root, dried and powdered and snuffed up the 

 nose, will destroy polypus. It is supposed to be the 

 "rheum -purging Polypody" of Shakespere; and in some 

 country places they still use a decoction of the fronds 

 as a remedy for colds and hooping-cough, employing 

 for the purpose the ripe fertile fronds, which, called 

 Golden Locks and Golden Maidenhair, are gathered 

 in the autumn and hung up to dry like other herbs. 

 The fronds contain a large quantity of carbonate of 

 potass. It is easily cultivated, requiring only a light 

 porous soil and that the rhizome should be kept on 

 the surface, with a constant supply of moisture, good 

 drainage, and moderate shade, 



YAEIETIES. 



lifidum, Burneside Hall, J. M. Barnes. 

 acuto-bifidum, Stainton, J. M. Barnes. 

 aurilum, not rare. 



(Having next the rachis in the upper margin, a distinct lobule, like a 



small ear.) 



crenatum, not rare. 

 foliosum, Silverdale, J. M. Barnes. 



~multiforme, Whitbarrow, J. M. B. ; Windermere, F. Clowes. 

 (A most variable fern no two fronds being alike.) 



