372 haet's-tongue spleexwort. 



before it also bears a line of capsules corresponding in length, 

 and the two lines or series form a confluent mass of capsules, 

 covered by two involucres, which face each other, and, in an 

 early stage of growth, overlap and appeal' united. 



Species. — Scolopendbium. Stipes shorter than the frond : 

 frond strap-shaped, entire, cordate at the base. 



Asplenium Scolopendrium, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1537 ; L'ujldJ'. 

 Fl. Scot. 660 ; Huds. Fl. Ancj. 453 : Bolt. Fil. Brit. IS, 

 t. 11; With. Arr. 766. 



Scolopendrium vulgare {Syin. Syn.), Sm. E. F. iv. 314, E. B. 

 1150 ; Mack. Fl. Ilib. 342 ; Franc. 52 ; Ncwm. N. A. 

 28, F. 289 ; Hook, and Am. 574 ; Bab. 415 ; Moore, 17:'.. 



Phyllitis Scolopendrium, Newm. F. 10, Phytol. App. vi. 



It is almost impossible to fail in giving an intelligible repre- 

 sentation of so marked a species : all the British and continen- 

 tal figures sufficiently exhibit its very distinctive form. 



This fern is the Phyllitis of Eay (Syn. 116), and all the older 

 authors. Linneus made it an Asplenium (Sp. Plant. 1537), 

 giving it the specific name of Scolopendrium, in which he was 

 followed by Hudson (Fl. Ang. ii. 452), Berkenhout (Syn. ii, 305), 

 Withering (Arr. Brit. PI. iii. 766), and Hoffmann (Deuts. Flor. 

 ii. 13). Sir J. E. Smith, in the ' Turin Transactions ' (Acta 

 Taur. V. 410), separated it from Asplenium as a new genus, to 

 which he gave the name of Scolopendrium : in this genus he 

 included Ceterach. The present plant was described by Sy- 

 mons (Syn. 193) as Scolopendrium vulgare, a name adopted by 

 Smith, Hooker, Francis, and Babington. On the continent, 

 Swartz (Syn. Fil. 89) adopted Smith's genus, but gave the 

 species the name of officinarum : in this he was followed by 

 Willdenow, and Weber and Mohr. It is the Scolopendrium 

 Phyllitis of Both (Fl. Germ. iii. 47), and the Scolopendrium 

 officinale of the ' Flore Frangaise ' (ii. 552). It appears to me 

 that the present species, together with the Portuguese Hemio- 

 nitis, a species announced and admirably figured as British in 

 Gerarde's ' Herbal ' (Ger. Em. 1138, figs. 3, 4, .5), but which has 

 eluded the vigilant eyes of all subsequent botanists, constitute a 



