180 MACOUN AND BUKGESS ON 



Scotia ; Pictou, Pictou Co. — A. II. McKay. Port Mulgrave, Strait of Canso. — Rev. E. II. 

 Ball. Cape Blomidon, N. S. — Lawson. North Mountain, Annapolis, N. S. — Macoun and Bur- 

 gess. Rather common in New Brunswick. — Fowler. Rocky woods, Jupiter River, Anti- 

 costi, Que.; north shore of Lake Superior, at Red Rock, Nipigon, Thunder Bay, and up the 

 Kaministiquia, Ont. ; Fort McLeod, B. C.,Lat. 55°, and lower valley of Fraser River, B. C. 

 — Macoun. Lower slopes of South Kootanie Pass, Rocky Mountains, Lat. 49°. — G. M. Daw- 

 son. The var. gracile is reported from Truemanville, N. S. — A. J. Trueman. Oxford House, 

 N. W. Ter.— McTuvish. 



Order. — filices, Juss. 



Genus I.— POLYPODIUM, L., Polypody. 

 * Veins free. 



1. — P. vulgare, L., (Common Polypody, Rock-Fern), Mx., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 271. Pursh, 

 II, 658. Gray, Man., 658. Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 268. Macoun's Cat., No. 2284. Fowler's 

 N. B. Cat., No. 744. Ball, Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., IV, 149. Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 363. 

 Eaton, Ferns of N. A., I, 23*7. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc., 81. Provancher, Flor. 

 Can., 713. 



P. vulgare, L., var. Americanum, Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 258. 



P. Virginianum L. 



This is an evergreen species, varying in height from 2 to 15 inches, the smooth 

 stipe usually forming somewhat less than one-half the length. It is commonly found 

 upon rocks exposed or shaded, but sometimes upon dry banks, old logs, or in deep, cool 

 woods on growing trees, after the manner of P. incanum. Rootstock chaffy, creeping close 

 to the surface ; fronds smooth, acuminate, leathery, usually one to three inches broad, 

 ovate to oblong-linear in outline, and divided nearly to the rachis into entire or somewhat 

 serrate, obtuse pinnre ; veins all free ; fruit-dots about a line in diameter, placed midway 

 between the midrib and margin of the segments. 



The shape and amount of division of the frond and of its pinnae are subject to con- 

 siderable change, and in Europe a number of varieties based on such changes have been 

 described. Most of these have been found in America, but only two of them seem worthy 

 of special notice, viz., var. Cambricum, found in the Eastern States, but of which no 

 Canadian specimens have been seen, which is likely to occur also within our limits, and 

 will be known by its being bipinnatifid throughout or in its lower half; and var. 

 occidentale, which has larger and thinner fronds than the typical form, with acuminate, 

 often sharply serrate, piuntr. Examples of bifid fronds are sometimes seen in this fern. 



As a remedial agent, the roots of P. vulgare were formerly esteemed for their purga- 

 tive properties, and also as a pectoral in asthma, but they are now scarcely ever em- 

 ployed. 



The Common Polypody is widely distributed throughout Canada from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, extending northward to Nelson and Slave Rivers, and probably to the 

 Arctic Circle. It is especially abundant in all rocky districts, but seems to prefer the 

 heavily-bedded Lower Silurian limestones from the Niagara to the Trenton. Of very 

 general distribution throughout Nova Scotia. — Rev. E. H. Ball. Common near St. John, 



