The Fern Lover's Companion 43 



THE FEEX FA:MILY PROPER OR REAL FERNS 



POLYPODLlCEM 



Green, leafy ])laiits whose spores are borne in sjjore- 

 r-ases (sporangia), wliich are collected in dots or clusters 

 (fruit -dots or sori) on the back of the frond, or form lines 

 along the edge of its divisions. Sjjorangia surrounded by 

 vertical, elastic rings bursting transversely and scattering 

 the spores. Fruit-dots (sori) often coA-ered, at least when 

 young, by a membrane called the indusium. Spores 

 brown. 



THE POLYPODIES ^ 



1. Polypody. Fuli/podhim 



From the Greek meaning many-footed, alluding to the 

 branching rootstocks.) 



Simple ferns with stipes articulated to the creeping 

 rootstocks, which are covered with brown, chaffy scales. 

 Fruit -dots round, naked, arranged on the back of the frond 

 in one or more rows each side of the midrib. Sporangia 

 pedicelled, ])rovided with a vertical ring which bursts 

 transversely. A large genus Avith about 850 s])ecies, 

 widely distributed, mostly in tro])ical regions. 



(1) Co^nIO^' PoLYprjDY. Foh/pudium rulgare 

 Fronds somewhat leathery in texture, evergreen, four 

 to ten inches tall, smooth, oblong, and nearly ])innate. 

 The large fruit-dots nearly midway between the midrib 

 and the margin, but nearer the margin. 



Common everywhere on cliffs, usually in half shade, 

 and may at times .spring out of decaying logs or the trunks 

 of trees. As the jointed stipes, harking back to some 

 ancient mode of fern growth, fall away from the rootstocks 



