OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM. 329 



roots intact : secondly, leave the grass or accompanying herbage 

 of whatever kind, undisturbed : thirdly, let the soil, whether 

 hungry, as in Botrychium, or loamy, as in Ophioglossum, in 

 which the plant is found growing, be the only compost allowed 

 near it : and, lastly, cultivate the herbage or foster plant only, 

 every effort being directed to keep that in vigorous health. 



The virtues of adder's tongue are not quite so numerous 

 as one might expect from its name and singular appearance. 

 Gerarde, Ray, and Lightfoot extol its healing powers, the two 

 former in oil, the latter as an ointment. " Adder's tongue," 

 says Gerarde, "is dry in the third degree. The leaves of 

 Adder's tongue, stamped in a stone mortar, and boiled in Oyle 

 Oliue vnto the consumption of the juice, and vntill the herbes 

 be dry and parched, and then strained, will yeeld a most excel- 

 lent greene oyle, or rather a balsame for greene wounds, com- 

 parable to oile of St. John's-wort, if it do not farre surpasse it 

 by many degrees ; whose beauty is such that very many artists 

 haue thought the same to be mixed with verdigrease." — Ger. 

 Em. 405. Lightfoot says the common people in Scotland 

 " sometimes make an ointment of the fresh leaves, and use it 

 as a vulnerary to green wounds," (Fl. Scot. ii. 652) : and Mr. 

 Luxford informs me that it is still gathered for the same pur- 

 pose in some parts of Surrey and Sussex, and used under the 

 name of " adder's-spear ointment." Miss Atwood, of Clifton 

 Vale, Bristol, informs me that " in a part of Herefordshire, 

 which is quite on the borders of Worcestershire, and in the 

 parish of Whitbourne, the country people in the spring make 

 what they call ' May ointment, ' one of the ingredients in it 

 being the adder's tongue fern. It grows plentifully in a mea- 

 dow in that district, and has been long in use as an important 

 part of the ointment, which is composed of a variety of herbs, 

 and is reckoned a panacea for bruises, tumours, &c. The 

 leaves and stems are the parts used of the Ophioglossum." — 

 Phytol. iv. 1098. I have received similar information from a 

 great number of authentic sources ; and Mr. Francis says " it 

 is gathered for this purpose by basketsful ; for, be it observed, 



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