THE COMMON ADDER'S TONGUE 117 



and the Dwarf O. lMsitanicum,i\ie last only recently 

 found in Guernsey. The Common Adder's Tongue is 

 widely dispersed, and abundant where it occurs. The 

 only locality given for it in the Lake Country is in the 

 meadows by St. Bees. It is scattered over the whole 

 of Europe and Asia, North America, and Mexico, and 

 found in some of its varieties at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, in J^"ew Zealand, and Australia. 



The Common Adder's Tongue is small and stemless, 

 the stem only represented by the central crown of its 

 few coarse brittle roots. The young fronds, from six 

 to twelve inches high, are produced in May and perish 

 by the end of the summer. The stipes is variable in 

 length, smooth, round, hollow, and succulent. The 

 upper part is divided into branches one branch leafy, 

 entire, smooth, obtusely egg-shaped and slightly variable 

 in form, traversed by irregular-angled veins, forming 

 elongated meshes within which are smaller veinlets, 

 the other branch erect, contracted for about half its 

 length, forming a linear slightly tapering spike, in the 

 substance of which, upon each of its two opposite sides, 

 a line of crowded spore-cases is imbedded. The spore- 

 cases are therefore considered to be produced on the 

 margin of a contracted frond. When ripe, the margin 

 splits at intervals corresponding with the centre of each 

 spore-case, so that the spike then resembles a double 

 row of gaping spherical cavities. 



The leaves, pounded in a mortar, are said to yield "a 



most excellent greene oyle, or rather a balsame for 



greene wounds, comparable to oile of St. John's- Wort, 



if it do not farre surpasse it." The plant prefers loamy 



i3 



