232 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, January 6, 1857. 
sub-variety, the segments being more deeply cut and 
partly scolloped, found in the Dargle, in the county of 
Wicklow. 
3. Polypodium vulgare bifidum, or Common forked 
Polypody. Jn this variety the end of each segment is 
forked or divided into two segments, spread away from 
each other. Sometimes the segments are divided into 
three lobes at the end, and it is then called P. vulgare 
proliferum. This variety has been found in a wood near 
Bingley, in Yorkshire, and at Chepstow, in Monmouth¬ 
shire. 
Many other sub-varieties might be mentioned, but 
they all pass by various gradations into one another, 
and w T e do not believe that any one of the varieties is 
permanent. Cultivation, we think, would reduce them 
all to the form of the original species. This species is 
common throughout the British Islands on old walls, 
old roofs of cottages, shady banks, and trunks of old 
trees. 
The first botanical writer who mentions this as an 
English Fern is Dr. William Turner. In the second part 
of his “Herbal,” published in 1562, he gives a very fair 
woodcut of this plant, and speaks of it as the “ Englishe 
Polypody,” “Wall Feme,” and “ Oke Feme.” Lyte and 
Gerarde copied Turner’s woodcut. They all dwell upon 
the medical qualities of this Fern; but, although 
Dioscorides did so before them, it is only thereby 
demonstrated to be an error so much the older. They 
recommended it as a cathartic; but Dr. Woodville cor¬ 
rectly observes, “Another character in which it has been 
recommended, and for which, from its sensible qualities, 
it seems to promise more advantage, is that of a demul¬ 
cent or pectoral; thus conjoined with liquorice its good 
effects have been experienced in coughs and asthmatic 
affections. However, it is now rarely used in this 
country, nor have the French authors, Poissoner and 
Malouin, who have cited instances of its success in 
mania, been able to restore to it its ancient reputation 
in this calamitous disorder.” 
The root, which is the part medically made use of, 
has a peculiar bitterish-sweet taste when fresh. It has 
been analysed by M. Desfosses, who found in it a sweet 
substance resembling sarcocollin, mannite, iucrystal- 
lisable sugar, starch, albumen, malic acid, lime; mag 
nesia, and oxide of lime. M. Planche also found in it 
viscin, which is more popularly known as bird-lime. 
Mr. W. Reeve is a great admirer of this species. He 
says, “ The most distinct, the most generally known, and, 
perhaps, the most ornamental of all the Polypodiums is 
vulgare. It is a very handsome and useful Fern, and 
well adapted for cultivating upon the Fernery or rockery, 
or for adorning any out-of-the-way place. It is so well 
known, and so easily managed, that little need be said 
of its culture. The more elevated parts of the rockwork 
will be most suitable for it, and the shady parts in pre¬ 
ference to the more exposed parts, although it will bear 
a moderate degree of exposure to light when once 
established. It particularly delights in the decaying 
trunks of old trees, so that these should be introduced in 
forming the rockery, and the plants fixed upon them by 
filling the crevices with fine leaf-mould, peat, and sand, 
and fixing the main root of the Fern upon this com¬ 
post early in the spring ; or it may be planted in other 
parts of the rockery in the above-mentioned compost, 
with a free admixture of sand. It requires only a 
moderate supply of water, and must be well drained. 
It is as hardy as any of the species, but will, if pro¬ 
tected a little, remain green all the winter. If exposed 
to severe frost the fronds become brown and die off. : 
It will grow very well in pots or pans with a good 
drainage, and in the above-named compost. It will 
grow, also, in the greenhouse, where it forms a 
very pretty object, and becomes evergreen. It may be j 
easily propagated by division, which must be done in 
the spring.” 
EXOTIC NURSERY, KING'S ROAD, LONDON. 
{Continued from page 108.) 
The house for hothouse Ferns is of the same length as 
the last house, forty-five feet. There are no rafters to 
the roof, the sash-bars being two inches and a half deep, 
and fourteen inches apart, north aspect, and the tem¬ 
perature for the winter months fluctuates from 60° to 
70°. You could not call it a damp house, but just com¬ 
fortably so, enough to render the air pleasant, and all 
the plants seemed to like tba.t particular degree. There 
were very great numbers and numerous kinds, and 
: many were quite young amongst them. I only notice 
the most prominent plants as they “ struck my eye,” 
and I begin with the Scythian Lamb, the Cibotium 
Barometz and Sehiedei. The down on the creep¬ 
ing root-stoclcs of these Ferns, and on the bottom 
of the leaf-stalks, or rachis, of several other Ferns, 
is like lambs’ wool; and I have since heard of an awful 
destruction of such Ferns to get at this wool in the 
Cannibal Islands, or somewhere in that direction, for 
stuffing beds and pillows for the gold merchants of 
California, who paid high for the luxury; and I have 
read in a scientific journal, from which I should have 
expected better information, that Cibotium Sehiedei was 
one of the kinds of Ferns which were so destroyed, 
although it is a native of Mexico, and does not grow in 
those islands. The geography of this one island of Great 
Britain is a mystery to one half of the London editors, 
and the geographical distribution of plants is an equal 
puzzle for many honest men who ought to be better 
schoolmasters. The next was Diplazium arborescens, 
which was new to me; Pteris asgoericaulis; Marattia 
laxa, very strong, and cicutcefolia ditto; Asplenium di- 
versifolium, Nephrolepis Davallioides, Polypodium ( Qonio - 
phlebium ) menisciifolium, Cheilanthes tenuifolia, viscosa, 
brachypes, and elegans, all of them very elegaut Ferns; 
also, C. Alabamensis and tomentosa; Nothoclcena nivea 
and chrysophylla; Oleichenia mierophylla, one of the 
prettiest of Ferns: it was exhibited for the first time 
by Mr. Veitch, at the Crystal Palace, in L855, when it 
was noticed as a great rarity; and Oleichenia Jlabellata, 
which seems a great favourite here, being used as a 
furnisher in several places; also, O. dicarpa, Lomaria 
nuda and attenuata, Davallia Nova-Zeylanica, and Aspi- 
dium macropliyllum; Oleandra hirtella, a tree-like Fern ; 
Oymnogramma Peruviana argyrophylla, which is the 
true name of the Dusty Miller Fern, which was at 
the last Show of the Crystal Palace; but Peruviana may 
be dropped to save one’s breath, and Oymnogramma \ 
argyrophylla is quite long enough for all conscience | 
except that of a Fern botanist, if in truth he has any 
conscience at all; also, all the kinds of golden and 
silvery under-leaf Gy mnograms, Polystichum mucronatum, 
