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OPHIOGLOSSUM. 
HIS and the next genus, Botrychium , belong, as will be seen by our sketch 
of the classification of ferns (p. xiii.), to a distinct group or sub-order, 
characterised primarily by the spore-cases being without a ring, opening 
down the side nearly to the base, and by the vernation, which is erect, as 
in most flowering plants, not circinate, as in ferns. From the genus 
Botrychium the present genus is distinguished by having the spore-cases, or 
sporangia, in two rows, forming a distichous simple (in the European species) 
spike ; in a frequent tropical species ( 0 . palmatum ) there are numerous 
fertile spikes to each frond, and in a South African one ( O . Bergianuni) 
the fertile and barren fronds are distinct. At first sight the species of 
Ophioglossum are very unlike ferns ; they must however be regarded as ferns 
in which the spores, instead of being borne on the back of the fronds, 
are raised upon a stem. The common Adder’s-tongue, for example, produces really but a 
single frond which is divided into two parts — the lowest or leaf-like portion being barren, 
and the upper or spiked portion being fertile. 
The authors of the “Synopsis Filicum ” admit ten species of Ophioglossum; the genus is 
represented in most parts of the world. 
THE ADDER'S-TONGUE : OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM, L. 
This is a plant which is very easily overlooked, although, when once seen, it cannot be 
mistaken for anything else. Moist meadows in spring often abound with Adder’s-tongue ; but 
so nearly is it concealed by the grass, and so much does its uniform green hue resemble 
that of its surroundings, that it is quite possible to walk over a quantity of it without being 
conscious of its presence. It is widely distributed throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
preferring a loamy soil, and is sometimes, although rarely, found in woods. In this latter 
habitat it is conspicuous enough, especially when in fruit ; but in pastures the growing grass 
soon overtops it, and it is then lost sight of. 
The curious appearance of the plant, with its long-stalked spike rising up from the single 
leaf-like barren branch, seems to have suggested some likeness to the tongue of a serpent, 
from which resemblance both the Latin and English names take their rise. Coles, writing 
in 1657, tells us it was called Adder’s-tongue “because out of every leaf it sendeth forth a 
kind of pestal, like unto an adder’s tongue ; ” and hence, on the time-honoured “ doctrine of 
signatures,” it was thought to cure “the bitings of serpents.” This, however, was but one 
of its many “vertues,” some of which were quaint enough : thus Langham, in his “Garden 
of Health” (1633), says that “being wrapped in virgin waxe, and put into the left eare of 
a horse, it causeth him to fall as if he were dead, but being taken out, he riseth againe.” 
Its greatest use was as an ingredient in an ointment, which, under the name of Adder’s spear 
ointment, is still, or was until recently, employed in some parts of Sussex and Surrey. This 
ointment was used, among other purposes, as a healing application to the inflamed udders 
