THE POLYPODIES. 



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 

 elevations above the ground level where accu- 

 mulations of leaf-mould lie in hollows with 

 pent moisture, will the Common Polypody grow, 

 thriving most vigorously in situations where its 

 roots are subject to the most favourable con- 

 ditions of soil and moisture. 



Most appropriately is it called the Polypody 

 the many-footed Fern for its rhizomas creep in 

 all directions under its shady covering. From 

 these thick, fleshy rhizomas about a finger's 

 thickness grow its matted fibrous roots. These, 

 thread-like, penetrate almost everywhere in a 

 horizontal direction, growing and spreading with 

 the progress of the rhizomas, from the upper sur- 



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