THE POLYPODIES. 



HE polypodies belong to 

 the largest of the fern 

 families. There are nearly 

 four hundred species in 

 the world, mostly in the 

 Tropics. Only five species 

 extend into northeastern 

 America, and three o f 

 these are considered by 

 many botanists to belong 

 to a closely allied genus 

 which they name Phegop- 

 teris. This name, it may 

 be said, was once the name 

 of a section of the genus 

 Polypodium and those who 

 call our plants species of Phegopteris, simply consider 

 this section worthy of generic rank. As in the true poly- 

 podies, the fruit dots are without indusia of any kind but 

 the phegopterids differ in having the fruit on the backs 

 of the veins while in the Polypodiums they are on the 

 ends. In Polypodium, too, the stipes are jointed to the 

 rootstock, while in Phegopteris,^ in most of our common 

 ferns, they are not. Phegopteris is also very closely al- 

 lied to the wood fern genus, differing principally in the 

 lack of an indusium. In habit, also, the species are much 

 like the wood ferns and it is probable that they will 



Phegopteris Dryopteris. 



