22 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



middle of the step so that the spike has a stalk sometimes as short 

 as ^ inch, or even less. The Orphir plant appears to be the form 

 termed cuspidatum by Milde ; some of my specimens of it are quite 

 similar to the specimens of 0. polyphyllum, which I have from 

 Madeira and the Azores; it is generally 2 to 4 inches high, but in 

 the year 1855 I found specimens 7 inches high, though in no other 

 year have I found them above 5 inches and generally less. The 

 barren branch is usually placed below the middle of the stem and 

 mostly very conspicuously so, so that the stalk of the fertile branch 

 is 3 or 4 times longer than the portion between the caudex and the 

 barren segment. Two fronds from one caudex are common, and 

 frequently these accessory fronds are without a spike. In both 

 forms the spike is from i to f inch long. Except in this particular 

 and in size it does not differ from the ordinary form of 0. vulgatum. 

 In Orkney it grows only on fine short grass, often within the 

 earthen enclosures where sheep are driven, termed " buchts." Culti- 

 vated in pots in a cool greenhouse it maintains its small size, and 

 fruits freely, but it appears to be much less hardy than the common 

 Ophiogiossum, and I cannot get it to thrive in the open ground ; 

 it seldom survives more than the one season after it is planted out, 

 and I have never got it to produce a fertile spike in the garden, 

 though the common form of 0. vulgatum grows wild about Balmuto. 

 The plant is quite easy to cultivate and certainly does not require 

 to grow amongst herbage ; it increases rapidly by means of the root- 

 fibres which run along almost horizontally beneath the surface of the 

 ground. Some of these become swollen at the extremity, and beneath 

 this swelling a root is formed — apparently a continuation of the fibre on 

 which the swelling exists ; the swelling developes into a bud which in 

 the succeeding year produces a barren frond ; the year after, this is suc- 

 ceeded by another barren frond, and it is not till the third or fourth 

 year that a frond with both barren and fertile branches is developed. 

 As the runner-like roots persist for more than one year, we frequently 

 find two or more plants in different stages of development connected 

 by them with the parent. A detailed account of the growth of 

 Ophioglossum vulgatum, by Mons. Duval Jouve, will be found in 

 C. Billot, ' Annotations a la Flore de France et d'AUemagne,' pp. 

 247-250. 



Common Adder s-tongue. 



SPECIES II.-OPHIOGLOSSUM LUS IT ANICUM. Linn. 



Plate 1836. 

 Babenh. Crypt. Yasc. Europ. Exsicc. Nos. 28 and 111. 



Caudex oblong-fusiform, slightly swollen. Primary frond often 

 accompanied by 1 or more barren ones. Barren segment or frond 

 greatly attenuated at the base, strapshaped-elliptical or strapshaped- 



