CHAPTER VIII. 
THE ADDERSTONGUE FERN 
{Opliioglossum vulgatum). 
THE MOONWORT 
{Botrycliium Lunaria). 
EITHER of these Ferns, in its normal form, can 
he regarded as ornamental; and as they have 
yielded no varieties which can aspire to such dis- 
tinction, we mention them as briefly as possible. 
The Adderstongue is well named, the whole plant 
consisting merely of a single frond with two 
divisions, the main one of which is barren, and 
shaped very like a small plantain leaf (see Fig. 24), 
from the lower part of which springs a fertile, 
contracted spike, not unlike an adder’s tongue (whence the 
name), but resembling equally the plantain seed-spike in its 
early stage; this, on closer scrutiny, will be found to consist 
of two rows of closely-set, roundish capsules, containing the 
spores. The plant grows in myriads in some grass lands, 
but owing to its small size and insignificant appearance may 
be easily overlooked. 
The Moonwort is a shade more ambitious in its pretensions 
to beauty. Like the other, its fronds are solitary, but com- 
posed of two portions, barren and fertile. The barren ones, 
however, are once divided into rounded or moon-shaped pinnae — 
whence the name — while the fertile spikes are twice divided, each 
pinna bearing some eight to ten pinnules, composed of clustered 
spore- capsules only. Habitat, pasture land, like the other. 
