THE COMMON ADDER'S TONGUE. 



branch smooth, entire, sessile, broadly-ovate or ovate-elongate, acutish or obtuse, pale yellowish -green. 

 Fertile branch erect, consisting of a simple spike terminating a more or leas elongated footstalk. 

 Which appears to spring from tin? inner base of the sterile branch ; Spike linear, very slightly tapering 

 upwards. Occasionally more than one fertile spike is produced, but it is very seldom that more than one 

 frond is produced from each crown. 



Venation of the lwrren branch consisting of a series of uniform veins (no midvein) everywhere 

 anastomosing, and forming a scries of narrow elongated hexagonal areolcs, those towards the circum- 

 ference becoming shorter ami broader; within these arc a series of lesser veins (venule*) dividing the 

 areolae into other smaller ones of similar form. From the sides of these areolcs, branch, more or less 

 abundantly, short divaricate, free included veinUts* which aro usually more numerous near the margin. 



Fructification occupying the margins of tho linear spike, which terminates the contracted fertile 

 branch, Spore-ca$e$ smooth, spherical, without rings or reticulations, embedded in a single series in 

 each margin of tho spike, bursting transversely, and then forming gaping concavities which give a 

 toothed apjtcanuice to the margins, Sjwrm vcrruculate, roundish, pale-coloured. 



Duration, The crowns and roots are perennial. The fronds are annual, growing up in May, 

 reaching maturity in June or July, and then gradually drying up and perishing. 



The Adder's Tongue, with its broad oval barren branch, and linear fertile branch, is so unlike other 

 Itritisli Ferns, that it may be at once distinguished by these features. Its simple barren branch does 

 not present much variation, the principal differences lying between a short broad oval outline, and a 

 more elongated oval approaching to lanceolate. 



A somewhat marked variety, however, — 0, vulgatum minus — perhaps the 0. azoricum of Presl, 

 (UocheteU, Ifb t Azor. Un. /tin. 165) has been found by .Mr. Symc in Orkney. This is a much smaller 

 plant, the barren branches of a narrow oval outline, and the plant reaching maturity in September, at 

 which period the common form has decayed The venation is the same as in the common form. Tho 

 small size and narrow outline of this plant have induced some botanists to unite 0. wdgatum with 

 0. lusitanicum, as forms of one species, tho plant now referred to being taken as one of principal 

 connecting links ; but this combination is surely carrying the so-called reduction of false species to an 

 unnecessary length, and is at least as confusing as the opposite practice. 



Though of similar habit to the Botcychium, this plant is more readily cultivated. The roots should 

 be taken up without being broken, in soils of the soil in which they grow, and these should bo planted 

 in similar soil, in any moderately exposed situation, where the roots may be moist and cool, but not liable 

 to excessive wetness. Loamy soil is generally preferred. It is one of those plants which seem to dorivo 

 benefit from the shade of surrounding herbage, and iu consequence 'gnrdenesque' neatness is 

 inimical to it. 



