16 
FERNS. 
[ Poly podium . 
POLYPODIUM. Linn. POLYPODY. 
(ttoXuj many, and woo;, noSo;, a foot, from its numerous roots.) 
PLATE OP GENERA, FIG. I. 
Sprenyel enumerates no less than 250 sjxcies of this Genus; all of them are 
herbaceous, some a few inches only, and others several feet in height. Inhabitants 
of most parts of the world, particularly of the Islands within the Tropics; several 
are found on the Continent of America, and a few are confined to China. Only 
four species are British.* 
1.— POLYPODIUM VULGARE. 
COMMON POLYPODY. POLYPODY OF THE OAK WALL FERN. 
(Plate 1, fig. 2, 3.) 
Cha. — Frond pinnatifid, lanceolate. Lobes oblong, obtuse, 
somewhat serrated. Rachis smooth. Root hairy. 
Syn. — Polypodium vulgare, Tourn., Ger., Park., Ray, Linn., Huds., Liyhtf., 
Plum., Swz., Spreng., With., Smith, Hook., Mack., Gray, fyc. 
Fig. — E.B. 1149. — Flo. .Daw. 1060. — Woodv. Med. Bot. supp. 271. — Ger. 467. 
— Bolt. 18. — Plu. Fil.t. A f. 2. 
Des. — Root, or rather Rhizomas, creeping horizontally, covered 
with scales, and numerous stout, branched, hairy fibres. Rachis 
quite smooth, yellow, void of lobes half way up. Frond from six 
to twelve inches high, lanceolate, scarcely contracting below. 
Lobes, oblong, obtuse, and slightly serrated, sometimes wanting 
the serratures, at others acuminate, while occasionally they are 
found very much cut and divided. Sori naked, yellow, large, 
prominent, and arranged in straight lines equally distant from the 
margin and the midrib of the lobe ; each sorus terminating one of 
the branches of a transverse vein. The plant is perennial and the 
fruit found throughout the summer. 
/3. (serratum) lobes distinctly, and often doubly serrated. 
y. (proliferum) lobes proliferous, or else cloven at the end. 
5. ( cambricum, Linn.) lobes ovate, deeply cleft on the sides, 
s. ( acutum ) lobes and fronds long, terminating in a sharp point. 
Mr. Mackay remarks in his “ Flora Hibernica,” that the Irish plant is 
somewhat different from the Polyp, cambricum of Linnaeus . It is in fact our 
variety y, which is the same as the Pol. Virginianum of Pursh, and inter- 
mediate between the usual state of the plant and the cambricum ; it bears fruit 
copiously, whereas the real cambricum is usually without fruit, both in its 
wild and cultivated state. We might expect this indeed, from the feather-like 
* The number of species in a genus is always subject to variation, particularly in one so 
extensive as Polypody, as newly-discovered plants are always adding to llie number, while 
different classification oftou divides one genus into many. 
