hart's-tongue. 373 



fructification is placed on tlie back of the leaves, on each side of 

 the midrib, in oblique lines of a yellowish brown colour, called 

 son. The involucre is double, membranous, opening as it were 

 longitudinally, and is turned back and concealed by the promi- 

 nent capsules. Each capsule is one-celled, stalked, globose, 

 and furnished with an elastic ring, which opens and ejects the 

 sporules in the form of a fine powder. Plate 24, fig. 1 , (a) part 

 of the frond showing the sori ; (6) a capsule magnified ; (c) the 

 same open. 



This elegant plant is common on moist shady banks, old 

 walls, rocks, and at the mouths of wells and caverns, producing 

 its fructification in August and September. 



The generic name refers to the resemblance between the 

 lines of fructification on the back of the frond and the insect 

 called Scolopodendra. Hart's-tongue, or, as it is sometimes 

 called, Hind's-tongue, is expressive of the shape of the frond. 



Qualities. — The plant has a faint, herbaceous, earthy smell, and a 

 sweetish, sub-astringent taste ; in drying it becomes slightly aromatic. It 

 contains mucilage and a slight astringent principle, which, together with 

 its slight aroma, it yields to water by infusion. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — The ancient physicians 

 considered Hart's-tongue a very valuable medicine, and freely 

 invested it with astringent, resolutive, alterative, diuretic, and 

 vulnerary properties. Galen, among others, recommends it 

 in diarrhoea and dysentery, and it was deemed very useful to 

 strengthen the viscera, restrain hemorrhages and alvine fluxes, 

 expel gravel, and remove obstructions of the liver and spleen. 

 It was also reckoned demulcent and pectoral, together with 

 golden and common maidenhair, wall-rue, and common spleen- 

 wort, called the five capillary herbs. Simon Pauli mentions 

 that the Germans used it with advantage, infused in beer, 

 against enlargements of the spleen and hypochondriacal affec- 

 tions. Ray * recommends a drachm of the powdered leaves, 

 in any convenient vehicle, for palpitations of the heart, and 

 the hysterical affections and convulsions of women, but neither 

 in these nor in the other diseases above enumerated is it much 

 used in the present day. 



* Hist. Plant, p. 135. 



