JUNE. 203 



Britain. Being easily preserved and examined, they 

 are a favourite tribe with most botanists, and deserve 

 attentive examination from their exquisite delicacy 

 and beauty in many instances. It has been lately 

 discovered and now abundantly proved that most of 

 the Ferns will nourish luxuriantly in glass jars or 

 boxes, provided with a little moist earth, without any 

 other attention than that of excluding the external 

 air. They may thus be made ornamental accompani- 

 ments of the parlour window.* 



Perns do not appear to be of much value in an 

 economical point of view ; the " rheum-purging Poly- 

 pody," Moonwort, Osmunda, and even Capillaire, are, 

 in the present day almost discarded from practice, and 

 except for burning, or as litter for cattle, they excite 

 no attention in the country. Their bitter principle 

 renders them so unpalatable to both man and animals, 

 that they are scarcely at all employed as food, and 

 even insects almost universally neglect them. Let us 

 regard them, then, in our usual way, as elegant 

 objects of natural beauty, and as incentives to botani- 

 cal ramble. At this season of the year they are in full 

 perfection in the vicinity of their native woods, bogs, 

 and mountains. 



The Adder' s-tongue (Opliioglossmi vulgatuin), is a 

 curious little plant, with a single entire frond, about 

 the size of a sorrel-leaf, above which rises a narrow 

 pointed spike of tkecce, which seems to issue from the 

 upright leaf, like the tongue of a serpent quivering 

 beyond its mouth ; hence the common name. The 

 vicinity of marshes and low meadows should be exa- 

 mined for this plant, which though not uncommon, is 



* See Mr. WARD'S interesting volume on the Growth of Plants in 

 closely glazed cases. 1842. 



