CHAPTER IV 
HART’S-TONGUE 
Phyllitis scolopendrium. 
Rootstock caudiciform, somewhat chaffy: scales hyaline, pale 
brown, usually reticulate or striate-reticulate in reddish-brown, 
lanceolate, acuminate, entire: leaves in a crown: roots spring- 
ing singly or in clusters from bases of petioles or from root- 
stock. 
Leaves ascending, the larger drooping, eight inches to two 
feet long, four-fifths of an inch to two and one-third inches 
broad, usually evergreen unless unduly exposed to cold.* 
Petioles two to six inches long, shorter than blades, toward 
base brown, slightly turgid; above green; somewhat flattened 
on three sides and two-ridged above, traces of groove on face, 
or subterete, chaffy: scales pale brown, delicately reticulate in 
brown or reddish-brown, lanceolate to narrowly elongate-linear 
from a broader base, acuminate, entire or below ciliate, those 
near base of petiole broadest; fibrovascular bundles two, curved 
and finally forming an X. 
Blades lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 
acute or obtuse, cordate or auricled at base, entire or undulate 
or abnormally variously incised, finely and more or less ob- 
* W. R. Maxon. 
