51 



have had under cultivation ever since. It keeps its distinct character, 

 which is strikingly different from the ordinary form. For conven- 

 ience I have ticketed herbarium specimens from this as var. elegans. 

 Small forms scarcely six inches high and perfectly fruited are often 

 met with. 2 It grows in almost every town in the county. 



24. POLYPODIUM VULGARE L. 



Common Polypody. 



One of our most common ferns, found on rocks and in mossy woods. 

 This fern has a great many curious forms and in the English fern 

 books as many as twenty varieties are described, but as it is useless 

 to undertake to book varieties which are likely to rise to the hundreds 

 ' it is best to throw out all but those which are well established as 

 being sufficiently different from the typical form and constantly remain 

 so. Found everywhere. 



25. PHEGOPTERIS POLYPODIOIDES F6e. 

 Beech Fern. 



Grows in the Essex woods and I have found it in two places in 

 Common lane, Beverly; it grows in Danvers (Miss Page). This js a 

 White and Green Mountain fern and, with the next, is rare here. 

 These two species of Phegopteris usually are found in about the same 

 localities, growing together in Essex, and quite near each other in 

 Beverly. This one almost runs into P. hexagonoptera which occurs 

 about us, and which I hope may yet be found here. 



26. PHEGOPTERIS DRYOPTERIS F6e. 

 Oak Fern. 



This as the last is a mountain fern anci is found in localities with it. 

 Both are European Ferns as well as American. Found in Essex, Bev- 

 erly, Georgetown (Mrs. Horner). 



27. OSMUNDA REGALIS L. 







Boyal Flowering Fern. 



Common in almost all meadows. Sometimes six feet high. Called 

 flowering fern on account of its having the upper pinnae changed to a 



2 This comes nearer being a tree fern than any of our species, the caudex covered 

 by the bases of the fronds of previous seasons, sometimes resting upon bare rocks 

 for four or five inches without roots or fronds. 



