POLYPCDIUM FALCATUM. —SICKLE-LEAVED POLYPOD. 195 
distinctness will be finally agreed upon. It will be seen from our 
plate that it agrees with Polypodium Californicum in the pellucid 
veins which thicken as they terminate (Fig. 3, a). From Poly- 
podium vulgare it differs in the thin, papery texture and glaucous 
hue of the fronds, and the falcate form of the divisions in the 
more vigorous specimens (Fig, 2). Beyond all this there is one 
very important difference if Professor Eaton’s account under 
“P. glycyrliza” be correct. As every fern collector knows, he 
has not to wait 
sf A . till the light of sming 
Comes from the sun, with zephyrs and with showers, 
Waking the earth to beauty, and the woods 
To music, and the atmosphere to blow, 
Sweetly and calmly, with its breath of balm,” 
as Percival would say, before he can collect perfect specimens of 
Poelypodiun vulgare for examination, for it is an evergreen, and 
is even in best condition in the winter season if the frosts are not 
too severe and the place of growth too exposed; but this species 
Eaton says has annual fronds, and this from their thin, filmy 
character is probably correct. That itis nearer to P. Caltfornicum 
than to P. vulgare we find also suggested by one of our own cor- 
respondents, Dr. C. L. Andrews, of Santa Cruz, California, who, 
under date of April 16th, 1878, says: “Polypodium falcatum | 
take to be a variety of our P. Californicum (tntermedium), having 
the habit of P. vulgare.” Of this habit Mrs. Fanny E. Briggs 
says in the Gardener's Monthly for March, 1879, “it grows in 
moss on trees and logs with FPolypodium intermedium, and is 
known as ‘ Wild-Licorice.’’ 
Eaton that it has “aerial rootlets, having a sweet flavor like that 
i 
Lieutenant Kautz tells Professor 
of licorice.” In his ‘Ferns of North America,” and wherein he 
expresses his opinion that it is a distinct species, Professor Eaton 
says he “has not seen the root stocks.” 
Dr. Kellogg, in the original account in the “Proceedings of 
the California Academy of Sciences,” says: “It is highly 
esteemed as a medicine, both among the natives and others, 
thought to be antisyphilitic, also used in the preparation of 
