190 
BRITISH FERNS. 
The name is derived from ophis, serpent, and glossa , 
tongue. 
The Adder Vtongue has a small carrot-shaped root, 
with long fibrous rootlets di- 
verging from it horizontally. 
The caudex rises in an erect 
position, it is protected by a 
brown sheath at the base, and 
the plant for next year appears 
as a bud also enveloped in a 
brown sheath, the fac-simile of 
the sheath protecting the base 
of the present caudex. The 
frond is leathery in texture, 
oval egg-shaped or narrow, 
very smooth, and of a pale green 
colour ; a stalk arises from the 
centre of its base, and bears a spike at the summit, the 
spike consisting of two rows of capsules which, when 
mature, split horizontally and release the spores. 
This fern grows in meadows and pastures, and is often 
difficult to find from the fact the growth of the herbage 
keeps pace with, or exceeds, the growth of the frond. It 
is abundant in the localities which it affects, and these 
may be more numerous than we suppose, because of the 
concealments which surround it. It is still much es- 
teemed for its curative powers by old wives and dealers 
in simples. The first time we found the plant, we were 
guided to the meadows it favoured by a wise woman, 
who was accustomed to make ointment from its fronds. 
In Turner’s time it was greatly respected ; he says, 
“ This is a wounde herbe, and healeth woundes that 
are almost incurable, or at least wonderfully hard to be 
