OPHIOGLOSSACEAE (ADDERS TONGUE FAMILY) 47 



forin with the pinnules of the sterile frond widely separated, the outer ones ' 

 enlarged and pinnatitid, in s. Vt. {Grout). 



3. 0. cinnamomea L. (Cinnamon Fern.) Clothed with rusty wool when 

 young ; storile fronds tallest (at length 0.8-1,0 ni. high), smooth when full 

 grown, the lanceolate pinnae pinnatitid into broadly oblong obtuse divisions; 

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

 withering (2-9 dm. high), contracted, twice pinnate, covered with the cinna- 

 mon-colored sporangia. — Swamps and low copses, common. (Eurasia.) Var. 

 FHONDOSA Gray is an occasional state in which some of the fronds are sterile 

 below and more sparsely fertile at their summit, or rarely in the middle. Var. 

 iNcisA J. W". Huntington is a form with the inner pinnules of some of the 

 pinnae more or less cut or pinnatitid. 



Var. glandul5sa Waters. Rhachis and lower surface of the sterile frond 

 permanently glandular-pubescent. — R. I., N. J., and Md. 



OPHIOGLOSSACEAE (Adder's Tongue Family) 



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

 branched, often fern-like in appearance, erect in vernation, developed from under- 

 ground buds formed either inside the base of the old stalk or by the side of it, and 

 bearing in special spikes or panicles rather large subcoriaceous bivalvular spo- 

 rangia formed from the main tisstie of the fruiting branches. Prothallus under- 

 ground, not green, monoecious. — A small family, separated from Ferns on 

 account of the different nature of the sporangia, the erect vernation, etc. 



1. Ophioglossum. Sporangia cohering in a simple spike. Veins reticulated. 



2. Botrychlum. Sporangia in pinnate or compound spikes, distinct. Veins fre«. 



1. 0PHI0GL6SSUM [Tourn.] L. Adder's Tongue 



Rootstock erect, fleshy and sometimes tuberous, with slender fleshy roots 

 which are sometimes proliferous ; bud placed by the side of the base of the 

 naked stalk ; fronds with anterior and posterior segments as in Boti^chium, 

 but the coriaceous sporangia connate and coherent in two ranks on the edges 

 of a simple spike. Sterile segment fleshy, simple in our species; the veins 

 reticulated. Spores copious, sulphur-yellow. (Name from 50is, a serpent, and 

 yXusaaa, tongue.) 



1. 0. vulgatum L. Fronds from a slender rootstock. 5-42 cm. high, 

 mostly solitary ; sterile segment sessile near the middle of the plant, ovate or 

 elliptic-oblong (5-9 cm. long), rounded or obtuse at the apex; mid vein indis- 

 tinct or none ; principal veins forming a loose network, the meshes nearly free 

 from secondarj'^ veins. — Meadows and pastures, rarely on dry slopes ; not 

 common. June-Aug. (Eurasia.) 



Var. minus Moore. Smaller; fronds often in pairs, the sterile segment 

 slightly fleshy, yellowish-green, attached usually much below the middle of the 

 plant. (0. Grayi Beck, ace. to Moore ; O. polyphyllum A. Br. ; 0. arenarium 

 E. G. Britton.) —Sandy ground, N. H. to w. N. Y. and N. J. (Eu., n. Afr.) 



2. 0. Engelmanni Prantl. Habit of the preceding species ; sterile segment 

 thicker, cuspidate; secondary veins numerous, forming a fine but readily dis- 

 cernible network within the meshes of the principal ones. — " Va." ; Mo. 

 (Bush), Tex., and Cal. 



2. BOTRYCmUM Sw. Moonwort 



Rootstock very short, erect, with clustered fleshy roots ; the base of the 

 sheathed stalk containing the bud for the next year's frond ; frond with an 

 anterior fertile and a posterior sterile segment ; the former mostly 1-8-pinnate, 

 the contracted divisions bearing a double row of sessile naked soorangia ; these 



