90 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



and Goniophlebium." This does not include the four distinct species of 

 Phegopteris also found in North America. 



The British Polypodies are few in number, five species only being 

 recorded as indigenous, and even these are of a very cosmopolitan character, 

 their range of habitat extending to North America, Japan, &.c. If British 

 species are but few, some of the numerous varieties of P. vulgare (which, 

 unlike the other native species, is of a thoroughly evergreen nature) are not 

 found in any other country, either growing spontaneously or produced by 

 cultivation. 



Culture. 



The Polypodiums, both British and exotic, are of two different structures 

 and of various habits. A small proportion of them, such as our common 

 " Oak " and " Beech " Ferns {P. Dryopteris and P. Phegopteris), are 

 deciduous, and provided with slender rhizomes which delight in running 

 underground, especially in partly-decayed vegetable matter ; the foliage of 

 these species, as a rule, is of a soft, papery texture. The majority of them, 

 however, are of an evergreen nature, having fronds of a somewhat leathery 

 texture, produced from rhizomes which prefer being kept above or close 

 to the surface of the ground. In this case we may give as the typical 

 species P. vulgare, of which C. T. Druery, in his excellent book, " Choice 

 British Ferns," says (pp. 119, 120): "It is a thorough evergreen, retaining 

 its verdure quite fresh right through the winter. The creeping rootstock is 

 fleshy and as thick as the little finger, while the fronds are comparatively 

 leathery and of a dark green colour, bearing on their backs the large, 

 golden-yellow heaps of spores, which form most conspicuous and beautiful 

 examples of the fructification peculiar to the Poly podium family. This Fern, 

 by its tough nature, is enabled to stand plenty of air, and even of sunshine, 

 and we consequently find it at home on the tops and in the crevices of old 

 walls, on the roofs of old buildings, and cosily nestling amongst moss-grown 

 rocks and similar places where its roots can creep freely about in accumu- 

 lations of leaf mould. We also find it clothing the sloping sides of hedge- 

 banks, and forming a dense undergrowth among the roots of the hedges 

 themselves ; and lastly, but by no means least, it makes itself a congenial 



