CTENOPTEEIS VULGARIS. 47 



always be of wood, and made very open. The basket and sus- 

 pending wire being prepared, the rhizomes should be arranged 

 therein iu such a manner that the fronds may pass through the 

 holes in the bottom, and that the growing points of the rhizomes 

 may also have an opportunity of doing so. The rhizomes should 

 then be covered with a thin layer of Sphagnum, a moss always 

 to be found in boggy places, and which never becomes mouldy : 

 next cover the Sphagnum with a mixture of well- decayed leaf- 

 mould and silver sand ; then arrange a second layer of Sphag- 

 num, and then a second layer of rhizomes, on which carefully 

 fasten wooden cross bars, and the basket will be complete. 

 Immerse the whole in soft water, until it is thoroughly satu- 

 rated, and then suspend it in its final destination. This should 

 be done in April, before any young fronds have appeared : in 

 June and July young fronds will emerge through all the aper- 

 tures in the basket, and will arrange themselves gracefully 

 around it : last year's fronds, which, up to this period, are un- 

 sightly, will now fall off. The basket should hang in a free cir- 

 culation of air ; all glass covering, more than that afforded by 

 a greenhouse with open doors and windows, is to be avoided : 

 exclude violent draughts of wind, such as are lUcely to break 

 the fronds, but admit plenty of fresh air. The polypody may 

 also be cultivated in pots, recollecting to introduce abundance 

 of decaying wood and leaf-mould. 



Out of doors this fern does well, if removed in a compact 

 mass from a wall or roof to a slab of stone in the rockery ; or, 

 better stiU, if you can obtain leave, in early spring, to saw off 

 the head of some pollard willow, and transfer the mass unin- 

 jured to your garden. 



€mmM Mm, 



The medicinal properties of the common polypody were once 

 highly extolled, but the plant is now fast falling into disrepute 

 amongst medical men. A mucilaginous decoction of its fronds 

 was formerly very commonly administered to children as a cure 

 for worms, colds, and the hooping-cough ; and I have seen el- 

 derly women collecting it in Herefordshire, as a specific against 

 the latter disease. It is gathered in October and November, 



