HART'S-TONGUE. 



SCOLOPENDRIUM VULGARE. Symons, Smith, Hooker, Mackay, 



Gray, Francis. 



Scolopendrium officinarum. Swartz, Willdenow. 

 Asplenium Scolopendrium. Linneus, Bolton, Hudson, Lightfoot, 



Berkenhout. 



LOCALITIES. 



ENGLAND. ^ 



S^LAND. [Universallydistributed. 



IRELAND. ) 



THE Hart's-Tongue is a particularly handsome and ornamental 

 fern : its habit is well marked, and very decidedly different from 

 every other British species. I believe it is universally, although 

 not abundantly distributed : it so frequently grows in the thickest 

 part of hedges that it may readily escape observation, and thus 

 not appear so abundant as it really is. In Scotland I found it 

 sparingly distributed, but I never passed a day without recog- 

 nizing it in some few localities. In Ireland it is much more 

 abundant ; it is not only scattered generally over the island, but 

 occurs in some localities in very great abundance, particularly in 

 the neighbourhood of Sligo, and in the demesne of Muckruss, 

 near Killarney; it here grows among the underwood, in the 

 shrubberies, &c. in large luxuriant tufts, the fronds radiating 

 from a common centre, and each being gracefully arched in a 



