22 
FERNS. 
[ Polypodium . 
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 tx-ansverse vein. The plant is perennial, and the 
fruit found thi-oughout the summer. 
(3. ( P . Cambricum, Linn.) Frond ovate ; pinnule ovate, and deeply cleft. 
y. ( sinuatum .) Frond ovate, or triangular ; pinnules proliferous. 
5. ( serratum .) Pinnules distinctly and often doubly serrated. 
e. ( acutum .) Pinnules pointed ; fronds long ; both narrow. 
9. ( bifidum .) Pinnules cleft at the point. 
Mr. Mackay remarks, in his ‘ Flora Ilibernica,’ that the Irish plant is some- 
what 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 intermediate 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 appearance of the plant, and 
the dilatation of its lobes, a too great expansion of leaf being here as elsewhere 
detrimental to the production of fruit. The foregoing observation was made in 
distinct reference to a frond, of which C, in the annexed cut, is an exact repre- 
sentation ; but a plant still more nearly approaching Linmcus’s Pol. Cambricum 
is in Sir J. Smith’s herbarium, marked as from Ireland. A pinnule is repre- 
sented in the fig. D, copied from the original specimen : an admirable figure of the 
whole frond, as well as of the Cambricum, is in Newman’s ‘ Ferns,’ p. 22. One 
pinnule of the latter is represented at B, and a whole frond of it, from my 
herbarium, at A. The other varieties are shown at E F and G. 
Vir. — A lthough still retained in the Pharmacopoeias, it is scarcely, if at all, used 
in medicine at the present day. It is feebly astringent, of a bitter and nauseous 
taste, and has been considered efficacious in catarrhal disorders, and against 
worms, in doses of from one to two drachms of the dried root. 
IIab. — The common states of the plant (a and S) are generally distributed over 
the United Kingdom, on trees, walls, banks, and rocks. — /I. On the rocks in 
some parts of North Wales, but without fruit. Braid ‘Hall, near Edinburgh, 
Mr. Brown. At Chepstow, Monm., Sir J. E. Smith. — y. Woods at Dulwich 
(1835), Mr. Saunders and Mr. W. Pamplin. South Isles of Arran (1800), 
Mr. Mackay. In the Dargle, county of Wicklow, Miss Fit ton. Innisfallen 
Island, Killarney, Mr. Kelly. South side of King’s Park, Edinburgh, Mr. Brown. 
— e. Rocks in North Wales, With. Meadows near Maldon, and other meadows 
near Ewell, Surrey, Mr. J. Bevis. Cobliam Park, Kent, G. F. 
Gf.o. — Found in most of the middle parts of Europe and North America. 
