S COL OPENDRIUM. 
137 
The Hart’s-tongue offers us another example of a fern producing sori upon the upper as 
well as the under surface of the fronds, one case of which we mentioned as occurring in Asplenium 
Trichomanes (see p. 95). This happens, not only when by an elongation of the normal sorus 
on the undcr-side this is extended to the margin, and beyond it to the upper side, but 
the sori are sometimes produced on the upper side within the margin, when there are no 
corresponding ones beneath. 
SCOLOPENDRIUM HEMIONITIS, L. 
This is the plant to which we referred when speaking of Asplenium Hemiomtis (p. 86), and 
any one who will take the trouble to compare the figure of that plant on p. 88 with that of Scolo- 
pendrium Hemionitis in our plate will at once understand how close is the resemblance between 
them. The cut given at p. 85 
of a small portion of the frond 
of each of the two species 
shows clearly enough the tech- 
nical differences between them. 
Scolopendrium Hemionitis is a 
fern of very limited geo- 
graphical range. Until com- 
paratively recent times it was 
supposed to be peculiar to 
the South of I 3 urope, but it 
has been found in Northern 
Africa (Algiers and Marocco), 
in Asia Minor (near Aintab), 
and also in Syria. In Europe 
it is found in Central France, 
Spain and Portugal, Italy, 
Greece, and the Mediterra- 
nean islands, often, however, 
only in small quantity. 
This is a variable plant, both in size and in general appearance. The stipes is some- 
times smooth and without scales, at others, and more frequently, densely covered with them ; 
it is sometimes very short, at othe s longer than the frond itself. The fronds are tufted, 
springing from a short scaly caudex ; they are from four to six inches in length, somewhat 
broadly spear-shaped in general outline, the lobes at the base (from two to four in number) 
obtusely or somewhat sharply angled, or even rounded, sometimes very prominent, at others 
less noticeable ; the texture of the frond is finer than in the common Hart’s-tongue. The 
veins are all free, but more branched than in N. vidgare, and the sori are usually shorter and 
distant, rarely contiguous. 
Milde describes, under the name of Scolopendrium hybridum, a very interesting plant which 
he considers a hybrid between N. Hemionitis (or S. vulgare ) and Cctcracli officinarum. Only 
one example of this seems to have been found, and that was on an old wall of a vineyard 
near Porto Zigale in the island of Lossin. Milde figures this specimen, and our woodcut is 
based upon his representation. This author says that at first sight the plant would be taken for a 
monstrous form of the Ceterach, but it is very different from this ; the fronds are almost entirely 
23 
