24 roLYroDiuM vllgare. 



It is now, I believe, nearly twenty years since Mr. Newman 

 published his interesting history of the British Ferns, In those 

 days Ferns were imperfectly known, except to a few botanists, 

 and his work was cordially welcomed by the public. Those 

 who are acquainted Avith the book will recollect a wood-cut 

 illustration of an old tree, on the bole of which are cut 

 the letters E. N., the initials of Mr. Newman. Looking 

 higher up the tree, an epiphyte in the shape of a Fern has 

 taken possession, and is clothing the forks from where the 

 branches spring; and this Fern is the Common Polypody. It 

 is a Fern that delights to run along the ground amongst old 

 wood and moss, keeping its rhizoma above the soil, delighting 

 to grow in our hedge-rows, on rocks, walls, and stumps of trees. 

 It may justly be called a parasite — or rather an epiphytal 

 plant — which seeks to hasten to destruction those trees where 

 decay has made its appearance. It is subject to much variety 

 of form, departing in an extraordinary manner from the normal 

 type, as a reference to the varieties hereinafter mentioned will 

 shew. 



One of the commonest and most universally-distributed British 

 species, the localities being too numerous to mention. It is 

 found at every elevation from the sea level to a height of tAvo 

 thousand one hundred feet. In shady places it is evergreen, 

 Polypodium vulgare delights in a damp situation, where there 

 is abundance of drainage for its roots. 



Abroad it is a native of Scandinavia, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, 

 Corfu, Madeira, Canary, Algiers, Erzeroum, Kamtschatka, 

 Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, California, 

 France, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland. It is equally 

 abundant in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the 

 Channel Islands. 



The fronds are somewhat ovate-oblong, approaching linear- 

 oblong in form, profoundly pinnatifid, and acuminate; lateral, 

 narrow, usually subcoriaceous; sometimes erect in habit, at 

 others drooping. The lobes are flat and liucar-oblong in 

 form, becoming shorter towards the apex of the frond. Usually 

 indistinctly serrated and blunt-pointed. 



Stipes articulated with the caudex; mostly almost cqiud in 

 length to the rachis. 



Rhizoma creeping and branching, copiously clothed when 



