94 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND FERNS. 



generic name was very early in use as a genuine folk-name. 

 It also appeared as Osmund Royal, Osmund the Waterman, 

 and the Heart of Osmund. Concerning the latter name, Lyte 

 says : " The roote is great and thicke, folded, and covered over 

 with many small enterlacing rootes, having in the middle a 

 litle white, the whiche men call the Harte of Osmunde." This 

 same white heart in Cumberland gains the fern the name of 

 Bog Onion. Flowering Fern is another old name which also 

 appeared in a Latin form as Filix florida. Fernsmund, used 

 by Markham (1676) appears to be an early "portmanteau 

 word," for it is evidently Fern Osmund minus the O. Some 

 old writers referred to it as Royal Moonwort ; and in parts of 

 Wales it is called the Tree Fern on account of the size of its 

 rootstocks. 



The British distribution of the Royal Fern we have referred 

 to. Its wider distribution embraces Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 America. 



The two following genera, Ophioglossnm and Botrychium, 

 constitute the tribe Ophioglosseas, whose members are dis- 

 tinguished by having their fronds rolled lengthwise in bud, and 

 by the spores being contained in large, two-valved capsules 

 without an elastic ring (Plate 105). 



Adder's-tongue Fern (Ophioglossum vnlgatum). 



We have alluded already to the difficulty experienced by 

 many persons in accepting the Hart's-tongue as a fern, but that 

 difficulty is as nothing compared with the case of the man 

 or woman confronted for the first time with the Adder's-tongue, 

 and told it is a fern. The young fronds of the Hart's-tongue 

 do unroll from base to tip after a fashion adopted by most other 

 ferns, and when the parallel lines of sori on the back of the 

 fronds are pointed out, the two facts do suffice to assure those 



