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THE FERN BULLETIN 



The Virtues of Polypody. — In the good old days 

 when the "doctrine of signatures" prevailed, medica- 

 tion was not the complex thing it is at present. It has 

 taken a more degenerate age to discover that all the 

 signs with which a beneficent creator was one supposed 

 to have stamped the herbs of field and wood to indicate 

 healing power are purely imaginary. While the belief 

 in these signs prevailed, however, any strikingly mark- 

 ed plant was likely to be seized upon as medicinal. It 

 was about this time that the polypody (Polypodium 

 vulgar e) a common fern of rocky cliffs, got its medi- 

 cal reputation. One old writer says that the rough 

 spots (fruit dots) on the under side of the leaves is a 

 sign that it is good for the lungs, but a contemporary 

 took another view of the matter and reported that be- 

 cause it had such rough spots on its leaves "it healeth 

 all sorts of scabs whatsoever, by signature." 



Hybrid Ferns. — The recent paper by W, D. Hoyt 

 on the physiological aspects of fertilization and hy- 

 bridization of ferns noticed in an earlier number of 

 this magazine has stirred up those botanists who view 

 every variation from the normal as a possible hybrid. 

 Hoyt grew the prothallia of several species to maturity 

 and while he secured the entrance of foreign sperms 

 into the archegonia of various species he secured no 

 hybrids although he used in some of his experiments 

 the very ferns reputed to have been hybridized by earl- 

 ier investigators. His paper has been attacked by R. 

 C. Benedict in Science who is inclined to ridicule his 

 conclusions because he took the precaution to have 

 W. R. Maxon identify some of his material. Hoyt 

 began his studies at the New York Botanical Garden 

 but declined to be swayed in his judgment by certain 

 reputed hybrids in the wood ferns which probably ac- 



