THE Potyropy 119 
Spleenwort on the smooth mossy face of the cliff is in 
distinct contrast to that of the Pinnatifid Spleenwort in 
dry niches and pockets of the cliffs. 
Onto State University, Conumsvs, Ouro. 
The Polypody 
LILLIAN A. COLE 
On May 20, 1916, I drove to Sennebec pond in Knox 
County, Maine, fastened my horse in somebody’s door 
yard and then walked along a field road shaded by trees 
and carpeted with young ferns. 
I ascended a hill of 500 feet elevation and found 
flowers and ferns that were a delight. Previously I 
had hunted for Viola lanceolata in low lands, for the books 
had told me to do so, so great was my surprise, when 
I found it on the summit of this hill of ledges, exposed 
to the sun’s rays nearly all day. 
Wending my way down to a brook in a ravine, I 
found a real fern garden—Nature’s own production and 
handiwork. With difficulty, over wet stepping places 
and among brambles, I came to a boulder in that brook 
and found some polypody ferns that looked different 
than any I had ever seen. The fronds were larger, 
darker green, more lance-triangular, and as I turned 
them over, instead of the great big staring fruit dots 
I found small sori. I wondered if I had made a dis- 
covery of a new variety for our country. 
These plants grew on an angle of the rock of but few 
degrees slant. They were directly over the water and 
were shaded by the surrounding trees. 
I wondered how they could cling and thrive so well. 
In the careful effort to remove a few specimens, I fairly 
lifted a sheet of their intertwining roots, with a very 
__ little soil of leaf mold and sand which they were polding 
for themselves. 
