OPHIOGLOSSACE^. (aDDKH's-TONGUE FAMILY.) (?J'6 



the apex a small patch of thickened ohloug cells, the rudiment of a transverse 

 rin^. — Fronds tall and upright, growing in large crowns from thickened root- 

 stocks, once or twice pinnate; veins forking and free. ISpores green. {Us- 

 munder, a Saxon name of the Celtic divinity, Thor.) 



♦ iSterile jyonds trulj bipiunate. 



1. O. regklis, L. (Flowering Fekn.) Very smooth, pale green (2- 

 5° high); sterile pinnules 13-25, varying from oblong-ov;il tu lance-<jhlong, 

 finely serrulate, especially toward the apex, otherwise entire, or crenately lobed 

 toward the rounded, ohlicjue and truncate, or even cordate and semi-auriculate 

 base, sessile or short-stalked (1-2' long) ; the fertile racemose-panicled at the 

 summit of the frond. — Swamps and wet woods ; common. The cordate pin- 

 nules sometimes found here are commoner in Europe. May, June. (Eu.) 



* * Sterile fronds once pinnate ; pinnce deepli/ pinnatijid ; the lubes entire. 



2. O. Claytoni^na, L. (PI. 20, fig. 1-3.) Clothed witii loose wool 

 when young, soon smooth; fertile fronds taller than the sterile (2-4° high); 

 pinnae oblong-lanceolate, witli oblong obtuse divisions; some {2-5 pairs) of 

 the middle pinnce fertile, these entirely pinnate ; sporangia greenish, turning 

 brown. — Low grounds, common. May. — Fruiting as it unfolds. 



3. O. Cinnamoniea, L. (Cinnamox Fekn.) Clothed with rusty wool 

 when young; stcril, fronds tallest (at length 3-5° high), smooth when full 

 grown, the lanceolate pinna? pinnatiiid into broadly oblong obtuse divisions ; 



fertile fronds separate, appearing earlier from the same rootstock and soon 

 withering (1-2° high), contracted, twice pinnate, covered with the cinnamon- 

 colored sporangia. — Var. rROND6sA is a rare occasional state, in which some 

 of the fronds are sterile below and more sparsely fertile at tlieir summit, or 

 rarely in the middle. — Swamps and low copses, everywhere. May. 



Order 132. OPHIOGLOSSACE^T]. (Adder's-Tongue 

 Family.) 



Leafy and oftcij somewhat fleshy plants ; the leaves (fronds) simple 

 or branched, often fern-like in appearance, erect in vernation, developed 

 from underground buds formed either inside the base of the old stalk or 

 by the side of it, and bearing in special spikes or panicles rather larp:e 

 subcoriaceous bivalvular sporangia formed from the main tissue of the 

 fruiting branches. Prothallus underground, not green, monax-ious. — A 

 small order, separated from Ferns on account of the ditferont nature of 

 the sporangia, the erect vernation, etc. 



1. Botrychium. Sporangia in pinnate or compound spikes, distinct. Veins free. 



2. Ophiogrlossum. Sporangia cohering in a simple spike. Veins reticulated. 



1. BOTRYCHIUM, Swart/.. Mooxwokt. (PI. 20.) 

 Root.stock very short, erect, with clustered fleshy roots (which are full of 

 starch, in very minute, irregular granules!); the biise of the naked stalk con- 

 taining the bud for the next year's frond ; frond witli an anterior fertile and 

 a posterior sterile segment; the former mostly 1 -3-pinnate, the contracted 

 divisions bearing a double row of sessile naked sporangia; these are distinct, 

 rather coriaceous, not reticulated, globular, without a ring, and open trans- 



