350 
OPHIOGLOSSACE^. 
land, and being considered highly injurious to the crop of grass. 
In Wales, Scotland and Ireland, it is of less common occurrence, 
a circumstance perhaps attributable to the greater frequency in 
England of those low loamy pastures which it peculiarly affects. 
I have only on one occasion found it in a wood, and this was on 
the northern slope of West Hope hill, in Herefordshire ; here it 
was large and luxuriant, the apex of the frond elegantly turning 
back, and its appearance somewhat resembling that of the 
blossom of the Egyptian Arum. In Berrington park, in the 
same county, it occurs in the utmost profusion ; and from these 
stations I obtained the specimens from which I have drawn my 
figures. In reference to Ireland, Mr. Thompson says of Ophio- 
glossum, “ Templeton remarks that it is partial to moist loamy 
or clay soils, especially meadows liable to be flooded after heavy 
rains : he particularises a locality of this nature on the banks of 
the river Logan, about three miles from Belfast.” Mr. Thomp- 
son, in company with Mr. Ball, found the Adder’s-tongue in the 
South Isles of Arran, off Galway. 
The Adder’s-tongue is a common plant on the continent of 
Europe, and it is said to occur in Africa and North America ; 
but I have been unable to satisfy myself of the identity of the 
species. 
There are faithful figures of this plant in Gerarde,^ Bolton,t 
and Sowerby’s ‘ English Botany.’J 
All modern botanists appear to be agreed as to the name of 
Ophioglossmn vulgatum. 
The virtues of Adder’s-tongue are not quite so numerous as one 
might expect from its singular name and appearance. Gerarde, 
Ray,§ and Lightfoot, extol its healing powers, the two former in 
oil, the last as an ointment. “Adder’s-tongue,” says Gerarde, “ is 
dry in the third degree. The leaves of Adder’s-tongue stamped 
in a stone morter, and boyled in Oile Oliue vnto the consumption 
of the juice, and vntill the herbes be dry and parched, and then 
* Ger. Em. 404. f Bolt. Fil. t. 3. X Eng. Bot. 108. 
§ Vulnerarium est insigne turn intus sumptum, turn extrinsecus applicatum. 
Conficitur ex eo oleum, foliis cum oleo olivarum diutius maceratis, ad omnia 
vulnera et ulcera commendatissimum. Pulvis at ramices valet. — Syn. 128. 
