FLORA 
OF THE 
SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 
Sunkincpom PTERIDÓPHYTA.' Ferns AND FERN ALLIES. 
Plants containing woody and vascular tissues. They produce spores 
asexually, each of which, on germination, develops into a prothallium 
(gametophyte). The prothallia bear the reproductive organs ; the female 
organ is known as an archegone, the male as an antherid. As a result of 
the fertilization of an egg in the archegone by a sperm produced in the 
antherid, the asexual state of the plant is developed (sporophyte) ; this 
phase is represented by a fern or an allied plant. 
Order 1. OPHIOGLOSSALES. 
Succulent plants, consisting of a stem and leaf growing from a fleshy root- 
stock. Sporophyll in the form of a spike or panicle, the sporanges formed from 
the interior tissues, naked, each opening at maturity by a transverse slit. Spores 
yellow, of one sort. Prothallia subterranean, devoid of chlorophyll. 
FAMILY 1. OPHIOGLOSSACEAE Presl. ADDER’S-TONGUE FAMILY. 
Characters of the order. 
Veins reticulated : sporanges cohering in one or more distichous spikes. 
Terrestrial: spike single, long-stalked. 1. OPHIOGLOSSUM. 
Epiphytic on palmettos : spikes several, short-stalked. 2. CHEIROGLOSSA. 
Veins free: sporanges distinct, borne in spikes or panicles. 3. BOTRYCHIUM. 
1. OPHIOGLÓSSUM L. 
Low terrestrial plants, with small rootstocks, and slender fleshy roots. Bud for the 
following year formed at the side of the base of the stem. Leaf solitary, borne on the 
stem : blade simple, entire. Sporophyll terminal, formed of two rows of large coalescent 
sporanges. Veins reticulated. Spores sulphur-yellow. ADDER’S-TONGUE. 
Leaf-blades oyate or elliptic-oblong, 3-12 cm. long, with several equal or parallel veins at the base. 
Leaf-blades obtuse: areolae with few veinlets. : 1. O. vulgatum. 
Leaf-blades apiculate : areolae broad, with many veinlets. 2. O. Engelmannii. 
Leaf-blades cuneate or cordate at the base, with unequal veins at the base. 
Rootstocks slightly tuberous-thickened : leaf-blades lanceolate or ovate with 
a cuneate base. ` 3. O. pusillum. 
Rootstocks globose: leaf-blades ovate with a cordate base. 4. O. crotalophoroides. 
1. Ophioglossum vulgàtum L. Rootstock oblique. Stem slender, 1-4 dm. tall, 
simple, glabrous, bearing a leaf near its middle ; leaf-blade sessile, ovate or elliptic-oblong, 
3-12 cm. long, rather firm in texture, distinctly reticulated, with few veinlets within the 
areolae ; basal veins 9-13: spike solitary, 1-2.5 cm. long, erect apiculate. 
In moist meadows and thickets, Prince Edward Island to Alaska, south to Florida. Also in Europe 
and Asia. May to August. 
1Contributed by Prof. Lucien Marcus Underwood. 
