2 . 
THE HARTSTONGUE. 
S colop endrium vulgare. 
Plate 2 , Figs. 2 and 3 , Page 185 . 
Next to the Bracken the most familiar amongst ferny forms 
is the Hartstongue. In some places it is even better known 
than the Bracken, on account of the fact that, unlike the 
latter, it can withstand the frosts of winter and look fresh and 
green throughout the year. It grows on the sides and upon 
the tops of sheltered hedge-banks ; in moist lanes ; in the 
damper and darker recesses of woods, loving especially the 
shelter of underwood, and a position upon the side or at the top 
of little knolls or undulations of the ground. It grows also 
upon the sides of moist stony embankments ; upon perpen- 
dicular stone walls, or upon the perpendicular sides of wells. 
To the walls of an old ruin the Hartstongue frequently adds 
a striking element of picturesqueness and beauty. It is 
always, however, much smaller in size when growing in open 
stony places than when it grows upon moist and sheltered 
earth-banks or in shady woods. 
Description. — Scolopendrium is derived from Scologiendra, 
the name of the centiped, because of a fanciful resemblance 
between the singular-looking lines of spore cases at the backs 
of the fronds of the Hartstongue and the feet of the centiped. 
The specific name vulgare refers to the fact of the plant 
being so common and widely distributed. The fronds of the 
Hartstongue — which is an evergreen species — rise from a 
