COMMON POLYPODY 307 



doeth not onely waken him and reyse him, but 

 also it makes him more lyuely and quicke" an 

 altogether superior animal. 



We gladly give welcome to the common poly- 

 pody, for, abundant as it is almost everywhere, it is 

 a picturesque thing to grow. It is one of the first 

 ferns to expand in the Spring. The fronds are from 

 a few inches to a foot or more in height, and beauti- 

 fully marked on their lower surfaces with the bright 

 orange masses of fructification. We may often see 

 this fern in large clumps, high in air, growing on 

 the upper sides of the wide-spreading, moss-covered 

 limbs of some old oak ; but we must not therefore, 

 if we are novices at this sort of thing, conclude that 

 we have come across the oak fern, the species 

 popularly so named being a little thing that grows 

 amidst the grass and derives its name because in 

 its general profile it suggests a spreading oak-tree. 

 Amongst country folk the polypody had been held 

 a cure for whooping cough, its fronds being dried 

 and then made into a sort of tea. It must be 

 observed, however, that it is absolutely no use to 

 gather the raw material off an old wall or fence, or 

 off the roots of some hedgerow shrub ; any polypody 

 to be thus employed must have been gathered off 

 an oak-tree ; all others, whatever may be the case 

 with these, are without healing virtue. One may 

 as well go to a doctor at once. 



The hard fern is another interesting species that 



