THE COMMON POLYPODY IN ESSEX. 291 
and, as it is not grown largely in gardens, it is less likely than 
' some other ferns to be uprooted and carried away by ordinary 
trippers, who, in any case, are little given to tree-climbing. 
So far as Epping Forest is concerned, it is probable that the 
decrease of the Polypody may have been due, to some extent, 
to systematic raids by trade collectors ; for Francis G. Heath, 
writing in 1875, says’ that ‘‘ No fern is so plentifully vended in 
the London streets as our Polypody ; for Epping Forest—that 
delightful strip of greenwood—furnishes the plant in thousands.” 
The same thing certainly went on elsewhere in the county also ; 
for Mr. Shenstone tells me that, years ago, when the cultivation 
of ferns, both indoor and on rockeries, was a special vogue, he 
often saw roots of Polypody, dug from ditches and hedge-banks 
in the vicinity of Colchester, offered for sale by vagabond hawkers 
in the streets of that town. 
Still, with my recollection of the former abundance of the 
Polypody in Epping Forest, it is difficult for me to think that 
even an army of these malefactors could possibly have reduced 
the plant to its present limited numbers there. Moreover, in 
regard to the Roothings, it is quite certain that such folk 
cannot possibly have played more than an altogether inconsider- 
able part in exterminating the Polypody from those parishes, 
which are still away from the main roads, entirely rural, agri- 
cultural, and remote. It is impossible to suppose that predatory 
hawkers can have threaded their deep muddy lanes and crawled 
along the ditches between their quiet and equally-muddy 
ploughed fields in sufficient numbers to effect the extraordinary 
reduction in the number of the Polypody plants which has taken 
place there. 
Turning again to Epping Forest, one might surmise that 
the super-abundant London smoke, which is credited with having 
greatly reduced the lichen-flora of the Forest, might have had 
the same effect on its fern-flora ; but this seems improbable 
on the face of it. Moreover, this cause could hardly account 
for the simultaneous disappearance of the plant from the Rooth- 
ings, which are certainly outside the immediately-devastating 
effects of London smoke. 
In the case of the Polypody, therefore, it seems clear that 
7 The Fern Paradise, p. 189 (1875). 
