42 COMMON POLYPODY. 



deciduous in early summer, falling o£f at a basal articulation. — 

 See Phytol. ii. 274. 



Species. — Vulgaris. Frond strap-shaped, simply pinnatifid, 

 stipitate : stipes articulated at the base. 



Polypodium vulgare, Lmn. Sp. PI. 1544; Light/ . Fl. Scot. 

 667; Huds. Fl. Ancj. 455 ; With. Arr. 773 ; Sin. E. F. iv. 

 280, E. B. 1149 ; Mack. Fl. Hib. 337; Franc. 21 ; Netvm. 

 N. A. IS, F. Ill; Hook, and Am. 5QQ ; Bah. 408; Moore, 

 43. 

 Polipodium vulgare, Bolt. Fil. Brit. 32, t. 18. 

 Polypodium Ctenopteris vulgare, Presl. Tent. Pterid. 179. 

 Ctenopteris vulgaris, Neivm. Phytol. ii. 274, A2}p. xxix. 

 This genus is indicated by Presl, under the name of Polypo- 

 dium Ctenopteris vulgare ; and he has arranged under the sec- 

 tion Ctenopteris fifty-three species, which agree in the following 

 character : — " Sori aut omnes aut saltem superiores in apice 

 globuloso venee venuleeve." And although the assemblage, at 

 first sight, certainly appears heterogeneous, yet the character, if 

 constant, and combined with the still more important one derived 

 from the rhizome, is not to be rejected, however much the group 

 of included species may require revision. I am not aware that 

 the species, in its normal form, has ever had a second name. 



All the figures of this fern are good, and some of them beau- 

 tifully characteristic : none however surpass in fidelity those by 

 Gerarde of the usual form; (see Gerarde Em. p. 1132, both 

 figures). It is very marked in character, and therefore easy to 

 represent. 



imgragliral gimp. 



The common polypody is perhaps the most universally dis- 

 tributed of all ferns : it grows in every province of Europe and 

 Asia between the German and North Pacific Oceans ; it occurs 

 in many parts of Africa, and throughout the continent of North 

 America. 



