50 HANDY BOOK OF 
dant. A friendly fern is this same Polypody found in 
almost every hedge beside our paths, on the surface of 
storm-heaten rocks and deserted ruins, where it quickly 
succeeds such lichens and mosses as first established them- 
selves, where even the small Nailwort refuses to vege- 
tate. 
The roots are brown, and occasionally clothed with a 
thick pile ; the rhizoma is brown also, having a densely- 
covered skin or cuticle, which dries and peels off after a 
year's growth, leaving the rhizoma delicately smooth a 
peculiarity rarely observable in ferns. 
Leaves of the common Polypody are generally uniform ; 
variations, however, occasionally occur, and should be 
noticed by the botanist : for this purpose we recommend a 
small book, with white paper, and pencil, to be carried in 
the pocket. As a specimen of the practice, we copy a note 
by Newman, transferred into his admirable "History of 
British Ferns :" 
" The common Polypody is somewhat parasitic, preferring 
the stem of a tree, or the half-decayed stumps of hazel and 
whitethorn bushes over these its creeping rhizoma delights 
to wander. In the South of England it ascends the loftiest 
trees ; and in Epping Forest I have often seen it orna- 
menting, with its bright green fronds, heads of the pollard 
hornbeams, when the wintry blast has stripped them of 
their summer verdure. 
" In England this fern has insinuated itself into the 
mortar of our walls, houses, churches, and bridges ; into 
our hedgerows also, and has become, in a manner, domes- 
ticated, yet does not enjoy such a perfect freedom as 
amid the humid, rocky, and shady dingles of Kerry and 
Wicklow." 
Memorandums of the kind are readily made they pre- 
serve the memory of favourite haunts, where grew the finest 
specimens, and when read to others may become suggestive 
of similar pursuits and pleasures. 
