GROUP VI 



FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 

 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



48. COMMON POLYPODY. SNAKE FERN 



Polypodium vulgare 



Almost throughout North America, on rocks, 

 more than a foot high. 



A few inches to 



Polypody 



Fronds. — Oblong, smooth, somewhat 

 leathery, cut into narrowly oblong, usually 

 obtuse divisions which almost reach the 

 rachis ; fruit-dots large, round, half-way 

 between the midrib and margin; in- 

 dusium, none. 



Strangely enough, the Poly- 

 pody, one of our most abundant 

 and ubiquitous ferns, is not 

 rightly named, if it is noticed 

 at all, by nine out of ten people 

 who come across 

 it in the woods 

 or along the road- 

 side. Yet the plant 

 has a charm peculiarly 

 its own, a charm aris- 

 ing partly from its vig- 

 or, from the freshness 

 of its youth and 

 the endurance of 

 its old age, partly 

 from its odd out- 

 lines, and partly 

 from its usual en- 

 vironment, which 

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