possession of the Linnean Society of London; I have made
a careful representation of it in tlie cut immediately below.
The lower figure represents a still more remarkable variety,
found by Mr. Mackay, in the Dargle, in the county Wicklow;
the frond represented was sent by Mr. Mackay to the late Sir
J. L. Smith, and is also in the possession of the Linnean Society:
It difiers from the preceding variety, in being fertile. I
In Ireland this species is much more subject to vary than in
Lngland, and I gathered a number of fronds in various parts of
the county Kerry, which bear some slight resemblance to Mr.
Mackay’s beautiful variety; in those districts the frond is also
much larger and wider, and grows with greater luxuriance. In
Lngland this fern has insinuated itself into the mortar of our
walls, houses, churches, bridges, &c., and into our hedge-rows,
and has become in a manner a domesticated plant, and does not
enjoy so perfect a freedom as amid the hmnid, rocky, and shady
dingles of Kerry and Wicklow.
The Common Polypody is somewhat parasitic, preferring
the stem of a tree, or the half decayed stump of hazel and
white-thorn hushes : over these its creeping rhizoma delights to
wander. In the south-west of Lngland it ascends the loftiest
trees, and in Lpping Forest I have often seen it ornamenting,
with its bright green fronds, the heads of the pollard hornbeams,
when the wintry blast has stripped them of their
summer verdure.
I I
lAwi.