OPHIOGLOSSUM. 43 



Treatment as before. The former species 

 may be fancifully resembled to the little 

 bough of a young Scotch fir, with its 

 fresh shoots; the latter to that of the 

 spruce. This genus, with that of Tricho- 

 manes, wishing to be always so much 

 damper than the rest, it were advisable to 

 place them in a case by themselves. 



OPHIOGLOSSUM. 



Sori naked, on a fertile simple spike. 

 No Indusium. 



OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM. (Common Adder's 

 Tongue.} Fig. 27. From 3 to 9 inches. 

 Root of a few, short, stout, yellow, fibres, 

 running horizontally. Growing up soli- 

 tarily. A round, hollow, succulent, stem, 

 bearing, on the upper part, a simple spike 

 issuing from the sheath of a smooth, 

 oblong-oval, tapering, concave, undivided, 

 and unnotched, leafy, horizontally-turned, 

 pinna (or frond, see Glossary) ; and em- 

 bedding on either side, at top, a single 

 row of yellow thecse ; the wjete; therefore, 

 somewhat in appearance of the character 

 of the Arum, or Lord and Lady. Barren 

 pinna sometimes found split at top, or 

 two spikes instead of, as usual, only one. 



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