ophioglossace^e. 23 



oblanceolate, entire, very thick and fleshy ; veins scarcely observable 

 (even in the dried plant) when held against the light, anastomosing 

 and forming a few elongate areolse ; primary areolae usually without 

 secondary ones ; cells of the epidermis straight-sided. Spike stalked, 

 obloug or linear-oblong, compressed, rostrate ; stalk slightly thickened 

 upwards. Spores without tubercles. 



In pastures, very local, discovered by Mr. George Wolsey in the 

 island of Guernsey ; " it occurs amid short and very level herbage 

 sloping towards the south, on the summit of rocks on the south coast 

 of the island and not far from Petit Bot Bay. On this elevated down 

 are a few scattered and stunted furze bushes, and around these the 

 grass is as usual somewhat longer, and here the little Adder's-tongue 

 is not quite so minute as on the level turf where it scarcely attains an 

 inch in height. It grows in company with Trichonema Columnar 

 and Scilla antumnalis, and on the 17th of January was in full fruit." 

 (' Phytologist,' 1854, p. 80.) 



In the fifth edition of the 'History of British Ferns,' p. 195, the 

 late Mr. E. Newman states that it is found also near the Land's End 

 in Cornwall, but I have been unable to get any information about the 

 Cornish locality. Mr. H. Chichester Hart reports it from " the north 

 side of Horn Head, Donegal," where he found a " few plants in 

 August, 1878." (* Journ. of Bot.' 1879, p. 149.) From the date of 

 fruiting and the unlikeliness of 0. Lusitanicum occurring so far north, 

 I fear it is likely to prove 0. vulgatum, var. (3. poly phy Hum. 



England ? Ireland ? Channel Islands ! Perennial. Winter. 



The Guernsey plant is 1 to 2 inches high. The sterile branch of 

 the frond is generally placed about the middle of the stem, and is 

 J to 1 inch long, very much attenuated at the base, acute ; the stalk 

 of the spike varies from J to 1 inch. The spike itself is from -^ to 

 t 3 q inch long. 



Besides the small size and the winter fructification, 0. Lusitanicum 

 offers several points of contrast with 0. vulgatum, although it does 

 present some resemblance to the smaller states of the var. polyphyllum 

 of the latter, with which it agrees in having often more fronds than 

 one produced simultaneously from one caudex. In 0. Lusitanicum 

 the caudex is considerably more swollen and tuber-like than in 

 0. vulgatum. The barren fronds and barren segments of the 

 complete frond are always narrower and much more attenuated at 

 the base, much thicker in texture, so that it is difficult to make out 

 the venation; but this may be done by steeping the dried plant in 

 water, and holding it against the light. The network of veins is then 

 seen to have the meshes much more uniformly elongated, and the 



