determined by whether the rhizomes or the fronds were utilised. An infu-
sion of the rhizomes was valued as a mild laxative in Classical medicine, and
it was perhaps from that source that it persisted in use into the last century in
Donegal,^36 just as in adjacent Londonderry^37 a decoction of the fronds, much
favoured in official herbalism for coughs and colds, lingered on as a mixture
with liquorice for remedying the severer kinds of those and asthma. Both
parts of the plant, however, feature in a marked cluster of records from
Cavan,^38 spilling across into Leitrim,^39 for application to burns or scalds.
In Britain the rhizomes are said to have persisted in use for an unspecified
Pteridophytes and Conifers 59
Polypodium vulgare, polypody
(Fuchs 1543, fig. 334)