163 FAMILY HERBAL. 



Hart's Tongue. Phyllitis. Lingua cervina 



A wild plant of the fern kind, that is, con- 

 sisting only of leaves, without a stalk, the flowers 

 and seeds being borne on the backs of them. But 

 it has no resemblance to the ordinary ferns in its 

 aspect. Each leaf of hart's tongue is a separate 

 plant, but there rise many from the same root. 

 The foot-stalk is five inches long, the leaf an inch 

 and a quarter broad, largest at the bottom, and 

 smaller to the top, usually simple, but sometimes 

 divided into two or more parts at the end. It is of 

 a beautiful green at the upper side, somewhat paler 

 underneath, and the foot-stalk runs all along its 

 middle in the form of a very large rib. The seed-ves- 

 scis are disposed in long brown streaks on each side 

 of this rib, on the under part of the leaf, and they are 

 more conspicuous than in most of the fem kind. 

 The plant grows in old wells, and in dark ditches, 

 and is green all the year. 



It is not much used, but deserves to be more 

 Known. It is an excellent astringent; the juice 

 of the plant, taken in small quantities, and for a 

 continuance of time, opens obstructions of the liver 

 and spleen, and will cure many of the most obstinate 

 chronic distempers. 



Hartwort. Seseli. 



A tall, robust, and handsome plant, native 

 of the Alps, but kept in our gardens. It grows 

 five or six feel in height : the stalk is round, thick, 

 striated, and hollow, very firm and upright, and 

 but little branched. The leaves are very large, 

 and they are divided into a great number of parts, 

 by fives and bv threes ; they are of a yellowish 

 green. The flowers are small and white, but they 



