82 



which, as they open to discharge the spores, they give the appear- 

 ance of being serrated. The fructification is perfected toward the 

 end of June, soon after which the fronds begin to die off, one or 

 more buds being previously formed at the base, which remain dor- 

 mant to the following spring. 



The barren frond is often forked at the extremity, occasion- 

 ally deeply lobed, and in very luxuriant specimens two or three 

 spikes of fructification are developed instead of one. An oint- 

 ment is sometimes prepared from the green fronds to use as a 

 vulnerary. Removal of the containing turf is by far the preferable 

 mode of introduction to the fernery, as, like the Moonwort, it is 

 rather impatient of cultivation. 



OPHIOGLOSSUM LUSITANTCUM. Lesser Adder's-tongue. TAB. 

 XLVII. 



Barren frond linear or linear- lanceolate. Fertile frond clavate. 



Ophioglossum lusitanicum, Linnaeus. Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, 

 331. Lindley, Veg. Kingd. 77. 



This small species has been long known and described as a 

 native of the south of Europe and the Atlantic Islands. For its 

 discovery in the Channel Islands we are indebted to Mr. George 

 Wolsey, who found it among short herbage, " on the summit of 

 rocks, not far from Petit Bot Bay on the south coast of the Island 

 of Guernsey," growing with Trichonema Columna and Scilla 

 autumnalis. It is far from improbable that it may be found upon 

 the southern coast of Devonshire and Cornwall; indeed, I have 

 received a specimen said to have been collected in the latter county, 

 but as the habitat has been, perhaps wisely, withheld, merely men- 

 tion the circumstance as an inducement to farther research. The 

 specimens from which our figures have been taken, were kindly 

 forwarded by the Rev. Henry Hawkes, from whose correspondence 

 it appears that the greediness of collectors has almost exhausted it 

 in the original locality, but that it is fortunately to be met with in 

 others not yet published. The student of nature is from the 

 example of his tutor liberal ; it is to be regretted that those who 

 affect only to be his fellows, should by their insatiate grasping tend 

 to render him miserly as themselves, and to desire to conceal dis- 

 coveries that he would share with pleasure, merely to avoid the 

 total loss to his country of a rare or beautiful object. 



The fronds are in perfection in Guernsey in February or even 

 earlier. 



