OPHIOGLOSStJM VULGATUM. 33T 



depauperating effect on the grass, upon which it acts as a root- 

 parasite, although the actual parasitism has never been traced. 

 In Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, the plant is of less common 

 occurrence, a circumstance perhaps attributable to the greater 

 frequency in England of those low loamy pastures which it 

 peculiarly affects. I have only on one occasion found it in a 

 wood, and this was on the northern slope of West Hope hill, 

 in Herefordshire ; here it was large and luxuriant, the apex of 

 the frond elegantly turning back, and its appearance somewhat 

 resembling that of the blossom of the Egyptian Arum. In 

 Berrington Park, in the same county, it occurs in the utmost 

 profusion ; and from these stations I obtained the specimens 

 from which I drew the figures at page 335. In reference to 

 Ireland, the late Mr. Thompson observed of Ophioglossum : — 

 " Templeton remarks that it is partial to moist loamy or clay 

 soils, especially meadows liable to be flooded after heavy rains : 

 he particularises a locality of this nature on the banks of the 

 river Logan, about three miles from Belfast." Mr. Thompson, 

 in company with Mr. Ball, found the adder's tongue in the 

 South Isles of Arran, off Galway. 



The roots and rhizome of adder's tongue much resemble 

 those of moonwort; but the rudimentary plant for the next year 

 is exterior to the stem, and not inclosed within it, as in the 

 latter; a reference to the figure at page 325 will elucidate 

 this : the caudex (?) descends to a certain but not uniform 

 distance, emitting at right angles various lateral, stout, succu- 

 culent and brittle roots ; the arrangement of these lateral 

 branches is somewhat verticillate ; at the lower extremity of 

 the caudex I have invariably found a single horizontal root, of 

 very considerable length, often as much as ten inches : I have 

 procured large pieces of turf filled with these plants and their 

 roots, and have carefully removed the earth, expecting to find 

 a connexion between the plants by means of these horizontal 

 roots : yet, though I constantly found them in contact, I never 

 detected anything like union, but those of the upper series are 

 frequently attached to the radicles of the grasses among which 



