OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM 



165 



Lastrea Uliginosa 



(Plate XVI) 



For this species we refer our readers to Fig. 184 and Plate 

 XVI), for the reasons given in connection with L. spinulosa. 



Fig. 184. L. uliginosa (pinna). 



L. uliginosa is a denizen of boggy woods ; it has afforded no 

 varieties worthy of note. 



OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM (The Adder's-tongue Fern) 



(Plate XI) 



This little Fern (Fig. 185) consists of a smooth-edged, lance- 

 shaped, leathery, barren frond, minus any midrib, and a long, 

 spiky, fertile one, the latter bearing a fanciful resemblance to a 



Fig. 185. 0. vulgatum (part of frond). 



serpent's tongue, though not forked. It is probably far more 

 plentiful than is supposed, since it frequents open, moist, pasture 

 land, and might be easily mistaken for plants of the common plan- 

 tain weed, both as to its barren frond, which resembles the leaf, 

 and the fertile spike, which resembles the seed spike. Deciduous. 

 It has a creeping rootstock, and if lifted en masse in a clod of earth, 



