56 
OPHIOGLOSSUM petiolatum. 
P etiolated Adder' s-Tongue. 
CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES Nat. Ord. FILICES. 
Gen. Char. — Capsulce nudae in spicam articulatam disticham connatae, uni' 
loculares, transverse dehiscentes, bivalves. — W. 
Ophioglossum petiolatum; spica caulina longe pedunculata, fronde ovatx>- 
acuminata laxe reticulata, basi longe attenuata. 
Root consisting of several whitish, simple, fleshy, flexuose fibres. Stipe 3 or 
4 inches long, erect, flexuose, bearing a single terminal ovato-lanceolate, 
acuminate, waved, thin, membranaceous leaf or frond, which, when dry, 
is seen to be marked with large, oblong reticulations, which are scarcely 
visible in the living plant ; the base of this frond is suddenly contracted 
into a narrow channelled kind of footstalk. 
Spike originating from the base of the channelled petiole, pedunculated ; pe- 
duncle longer than the stipes, slender, erect, cylindrical ; spike itself li- 
near-lanceolate, compressed, consisting of numerous, distichous, coadunate 
spherical capsules, which in age burst transversely and contain a globu- 
lar mass of minute, yellowish granules. 
Living individuals of this species of Adder' s-tongue, at- 
tached to the roots of some plants from the West Indies, 
were received at the Liverpool Botanic Garden, whence Messrs 
Shepherd forwarded some excellent specimens to me, with 
the name of O. ovatum of Willdenow annexed to them. 
With the description of this author, the present individual, 
indeed, . in some respects corresponds ; but Bory de St 
Vincent, who found it in the Isle de Bourbon, and who is 
the original authority for the O. ovatum^ says expressly that 
it differs from the European O. vulgatum, in having a short- 
ly pedunculated spike, which hardly exceeds the length of the 
frond ; whereas one of the striking characteristics of the pre- 
sent species is the great length of the peduncle, whicli surpass- 
YOI,. I. 
