50 I. POLYPODIUM. 
sphere to secure the most perfect growth under artificial 
circumstances. If planted on artificial rockwork, it should 
be placed where these conditions may be secured, and where 
it will also enjoy shelter in other respects. As a pot plant, 
it is a very delicate object ; and should be planted hi well- 
drained pots of turfy peat soil, mixed with decayed tree 
leaves, broken sandstone, and sand. In the summer it 
succeeds best hi a cold frame, shaded from bright sunshine ; 
and it may be induced to grow hi winter, by the applica- 
tion of heat, which it bears well. The spray of a water- 
fall, in which the plant delights, may be imitated, by 
suspending over the plants a vessel of water, which, fur- 
nished with a coarse worsted-thread syphon, may be made 
to supply a succession of water-drops, to fall on a stone 
near the plant, and thus keep it constantly sprinkled. It 
may be increased by separating its creeping caudex. 
3. Polypodlum alpestre, Sprengel Alpine Poly- 
pody. Fronds bipinnate, lanceolate; pinnules linear- 
lanceolate, pinnatifid with obtuse sharply serrate lobes. 
POLTPODITTM ALPESTRE, Sprengel. P. RHJETicnic, Wood's Tonr. 
Fl. 423, not of Linnaeus. ABPIDIUM AIPESTRE, Hoppe : Schkuhr 
58, t60. A. RH.BTICUM, Swartz. PsEUDATHraicM AJLPISTKX, 
Newm. App. xiv. 
The Alpine Polypody has a short decumbent caudex, 
having a tendency to become divided into several crowns 
or distinct axes of growth, to which the adherent fronds 
are terminal. These fronds, as in most of the deciduous 
species, grow up about May, and reach then- maturity 
towards the end of summer. The stipes is short, usually 
about one-sixth of the whole length of the fronds; stoutish, 
swollen near the very base, and sparingly clothed with a 
few broadly ovate-lanceolate pointed pallid scales. The 
fronds vary from six inches to three feet and upwards in 
height, the more usual height being about a foot and a 
half; in the former dwarfed condition Mr. Backhouse 
