CHAPTER IV 

 HART'S-TONGUE 



Phyllitis scolopendrium. 



Rootstock caudiciform, somewhat chaffy: scales hyaline, pale 

 brown, usually reticulate or striate-reticulate in reddish-brown, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, entire: leaves in a crown: roots spring- 

 ing singly or in clusters from bases of petioles or from root- 

 stock. 



Leaves ascending, the larger drooping, eight inches to two 

 feet long, four-fifths of an inch to two and one-third inches 

 broad, usually evergreen unless unduly exposed to cold.* 



Petioles two to six inches long, shorter than blades, toward 

 base brown, slightly turgid; above green; somewhat flattened 

 on three sides and two-ridged above, traces of groove on face, 

 or subterete, chaffy : scales pale brown, delicately reticulate in 

 brown or reddish-brown, lanceolate to narrowly elongate-linear 

 from a broader base, acuminate, entire or below ciliate, those 

 near base of petiole broadest; fibrovascular bundles two, curved 

 and finally forming an X. 



Blades lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 

 acute or obtuse, cordate or auricled at base, entire or undulate 

 or abnormally variously incised, finely and more or less ob- 



* W. R. Maxon. 



