OPHIOGLOSSACE^. (adDER's TOXGUE FAMILY.) 637 



1. BOTRYCHIUM, Swartz. Moonwort. 



Fronds mostly solitary, erect from a root of thickened fleshy fibres ; the 

 terminal branch fertile, pinnately decompound, bearing on its narrow divisions 

 the large coriaceous, transversely 2-valved sporangia ; the lateral branch 

 sterile, with forking free veins. 



1. B. Virginicum, Swartz. Stem tall ; sterile part of the frond sessile, 

 broadly triangular, teruately 3 - 4-piuuate ; ultimate segments oblong-lanceo- 

 late, thin and delicate, toothed and incised; fertile part long-stalked, 2-3- 

 pinnate. — Shadv woods, Florida, and northward. — Fronds 4' -2° high. 



2. B. ternatum, Swartz. Stem low ; sterile part of the frond mostly 

 long-stalked, broadly triangular, 2-4-pinnate ; ultimate segments of a thick 

 and fleshy texture, roundish, ovate, oblong or lanceolate, entire, toothed, incised, 

 or even dissected into very narrow lobes ; fertile part taller than the sterile, 

 ovate, 2-3-pinnate. (B. fumarioides, Willd. B. obliquum and B. dissectum, 

 Muhl.) — Low shady woods and pastures, rarely in open pine barrens, Florida, 

 and northward. — Fronds 3'- 10' high, the succulent stem divided down to 

 the surface of the ground, or even lower. 



2. OPHIOGLOSSUM, L. Adder's Toxgle. 



Fronds mostly solitary, with short and often thickened rootstocks, and fleshy 

 fibrous roots ; sporangia large, coriaceous, opening transversely, connate, 

 arranged in compact simple 2-ranked spikes, proceeding variously from the 

 mostly simple sterile part of the frond. Veins reticulated. 



1. O. VUlgatum, L. Sterile part of the frond ovate or oblong-oval, ob- 

 tuse, sessile near the middle of the stem, without a midrib, 1^'- 3' long; fer- 

 tile spike terminal, long-peduncled ; rootstock short, erect ; roots fibrous, 

 spreading horizontally. — In sphagnous meadows and pastures, Tennessee, 

 and northward. — Fronds 4' - 10' high. 



2. O. Crotalophoroides, Walt. Smaller; sterile part of the frond 

 near the base of the stem, ovate, abruptly contracted at the base and slightly 

 petioled ; spike short and thick ; rootstock bulbous ; roots slender. — Low 

 grounds, Florida to Louisiana. — Fronds 3' -6' high. 



3. O. nudicaule, L. £. Small, sterile part of the frond near the base of 

 the stem, ovate or oblong, acute, narrowed into a short petiole ; spike linear 

 acuminate ; rootstock bulbous ; roots coarse. — Low sandy places or occasion- 

 ally in dry soil, Florida and Georgia. — Fronds r-4' high. 



4. O. palmatum, Pltim. Frond thick and succulent, drooping, 4'- 10' 

 long, stipitate from a short woolly rootstock ; sterile part cnneato at base, 

 simple, or palmately 2-6-lobed, the lobes tongue-shaped, rarely forking; 

 spikes 1 - several at the top of the stipe, or along the basal margins of the 

 sterile part, short-stalked, V long. — In the axils of the leaves of the Falmetto. 

 South Florida, 



