ADDEli's TONGUES. 



35 



in its lower portion, and expanding upwards into a more 

 or less obtusely ovate or egg-shaped form. (Plate I., fig. 3.) 



The localities in which this fern delights are damp 

 meadows and loamy pastures, having a greater preference 

 to moisture than the Moonwort, which affects dry and 

 . well-drained pastures and moors. The Adder's Tongue 

 is the more common fern of the tw^o, and is generally dis- 

 tributed over Europe. It is often abundant in localities 

 where it occurs, but should not be sought after later than 

 the month of June, at which season it is in perfection. 

 The fertile spike is occasionally double, or forked, with a 

 spike terminating each branch. This is the only varia- 

 tion to which it appears to be addicted. 



The virtues of Adder's Tongue, as expounded by Ge- 

 rarde and the old herbalists, are undoubtedly fabulous. 

 "The leaves of the adder's tongue," he writes, "stamped 

 in a stone mortar, and boiled in oyle of olive, and then 

 strained, will yield a most excellent green oyle, or rather 

 a balsam, for greene wounds, comparable to oyle of St. 

 John's wort, if it doth not far surpass it." It is said that 

 the plant is still collected in some of the southern counties 

 for the preparation of the " green oil of charity" extolled 

 by old writers. 



Culpepper informs us that " it is an herb under the 

 dominion of the moon and Cancer ; and therefore if the 

 weakness of the retentive faculty be caused by an evil in- 

 fluence of Saturn, in any part of the body governed by the 

 moon, or under the dominion of Cancer, this herb cures 

 it by sympathy. It cures the diseases after specified, in 

 any part of the body under the influence of Saturn, by 

 antipathy." 



Drayton ascribes the power of acting as an antidote to 

 the poison of reptiles to this plant, in the following lines: 



"For them that are with newts, or snakes, or adders stung, , 

 He seeketh out an herb that 's called adder's tongue ; 

 As Nature it ordained, its own like hurt to cure, 

 And, sportive, did herself to niceties inure." 



Apart from all fable or romance, this is an interesting 

 fern, not only on account of its singular appearance, 



