148 FERNS OF KENTUCKY. 
Prats LIX; 
OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM. Linnzus. 
COMMON ADDER’S TONGUE. 
This species of Ophioglossum is the only one I have 
been able to find in Kentucky, although Dr. Short, a very 
trustworthy botanist, states that he found the O. bulbosum, 
(Michx.) in this State, giving “low grounds” as its habitat.* 
The latter, however, has been reduced by Prof. Eaton to 
a variety of O. vulgatum, called Crotalophoroides from 
Walker’s species. I am inclined to believe, from my 
own observation, that all the Kentucky forms may be 
properly referred to O. vulgatum, which is an exceedingly 
variable species, the simple leaf of the sterile frond being 
sometimes oval, sometimes ovate-oblong, or even lanceo- 
late. The root-stocks, generally fibrous, are occasionally 
inclined to be bulbous, by which Dr. Short was probably 
misled in his determination of the species. For a full 
account of the development of the vegetative organs of 
the O. vulgatum, the reader is referred to Hofmeister. f 
The stem is never branched, and the comparatively thick- 
ened root-stock but rarely. Unlike most ferns, the veins 
are finely reticulated, not free or forked. This exceptional 
mode of the venation is common to all the Ophioglossacez. 
Prof. Hussey says that he found this fern near Glasgow 
Junction, in Barren County, where it grew in abundance. 
The exact locality is within a few rods of the Lithographic 
Stone-Quarry, near the road leading from Glasgow Junction 
* See Riddell, 1. c. p. 107, and Short, Cat. of the Phenog. Pl., and 
Ferns of Kentucky, p. Io. 
+ Chapman’s Flora of Southern States, p. 599. 
{ Ray Society, 1. c. p. 312, et seq. 
