hart’s tongue spleenwort. 
289 
HART’S TONGUE SPLEENWORT {one-eighth natural size). 
ScoLOPENDRiUM VULGARE, Symons. 
The Hart’s Tongue is a particularly handsome and ornamen- 
tal fern : its habit is well marked, and very decidedly diiferent 
from every other British species. I believe it is universally, al- 
though not abundantly distributed : it so frequently grows in the 
thickest part of hedges that it may readily escape observation, and 
thus does not appear so abundant as it really is. In Scotland I 
found it sparingly distributed, but I never passed a day without 
recognizing it in some few localities. In Ireland it is much 
u 
