2 
POLYPODIUM VULGAREe 
COMMON POLYPODY. 
The name of this fern comes from the Greek words 
noAus, polys , many* and nous, pous, no5os, podos, a 
foot, traditionally from its numerous roots, though 
this would apply to innumerable other plants. Some 
say its roots resemble the polypi of certain fish, and 
hence the name. It is generally well to look into 
the derivation of a classical word used in the sciences, 
although it must be said that the applicability of such 
words is not always very obvious. The specific or 
second word vulgare is the Latin for common. There 
is no English designation for this fern in use, unless 
the term Polypody be so considered, though it is no 
more English than Polypodium. The farm labourers 
and uneducated country people in this neighbourhood 
use the latter word, which is very good Latinised 
Greek, and which would sound highly classic in 
their mouths if they did not pronounce it Polypojum . 
The fibres of the root descend from the rhizome, 
or horizontal creeping stem, which is commonly 
about as thick as the finger, woody, yellow, covered 
with brown scales ; and from it ascend the stalks of 
the leaves. The stipes or stalk usually occupies half 
the whole length of the frond, and is smooth and 
yellow, or light green. The leafy part is lanceolate 
in form, scarcely contracting below, the lobes oblong, 
slightly serrated, though not always, and bluntish at 
the ends. The sori, or patches of seed, are naked 
and circular, the marks by which the genus Poly- 
podium is known. Each sorus (singular of sori) is 
placed at the end of the vein which nourishes it. 
The venation, or disposition of the veins in the lobes, 
now considered by Botanists an essential point of 
observation, is shewn in the plate. There is also a 
sketch of a magnified spherical spore case emitting 
the seed, with its upper half lifted off by the jointed 
elastic ring. 
Uses.— This fern made into tea with hot water, 
by which is meant a hot decoction, has been recom- 
mended as a purifier of the blood. Once upon a 
time in my mad youth, at that crude season when 
