42 FLOWERLESS PLANTS 



Much the same kind of thing occurs in the 

 case of the Adder" s-tongue. Here, again, we 

 may observe the curious double frond, which 

 is divided into a fertile and a barren portion. 

 The barren portion of the frond is not divided 

 at all, but is of a simple egg-shaped design. 

 The fertile division runs up into a kind of spike, 

 at the upper part of which the spore cases are 

 arranged in a double row. In both these 

 strange ferns the leaves only last for a few 

 months and usually die right down, the nutri- 

 ment passing into the Uttle root. 



In the case of the Hard Fern [Lomaria 

 spicant) the fertile fronds are quite distinct 

 from the ordinary leaves. The barren leaves, 

 which vary ver^' much in length according to the 

 amount of moisture which the plant is able to 

 secure, are remarkable for the neat arrangement 

 of the leaflets, not, as at first appears, in opposite 

 pairs, but actually in alternation. The fertile 

 fronds are usually much taUer and a good deal 

 more erect in habit. There is a marked con- 

 traction of the leaflets, which are really very 

 narrow, and bear on each side of the mid-veins 

 clusters of spore cases. When these are fully 

 ripe, however, they cover in almost the whole 



