11 
I. 
TONGUE-WOETS. OPHIOGLOSSACEiE. 
These are the least resembling Eerns of the three British 
Sub-orders. We have placed them first on the list, as being 
the most natural transition from the flowering plants. In 
many respects they differ from the others. The rusty fruit 
is not on the back of the frond, but on a separate spike 
merely attached to the base. The buds do not roll in. The 
veins are not even distinct in the Adder’ s-tongues, hut 
mix one with another, as in a large portion of the flower- 
ing plants (the Exogens.) They also do not grow in woods 
or shady hedge-hanks, or walls, or rocks, but are almost 
always to be found in the open fields or downs. Through- 
out the world this is a small Sub-order. We have but one 
species to each genus. 
1. Adder’ s-tongues. Ophioglossa, 
‘‘ For them, that are "with newts, or snakes, or adders stung, 
He seeking out an herb that’s called Adder’s-tongue, 
As nature it ordained its own like hurt to cure, 
And sportive did herself to niceties inure.” 
Plate I, fig. 1. 
Adder’s-tongue. OpJiioglossum vulgatum. The leaf of this 
plant, for we can hardly call it a frond, is egg-shaped, net- 
veined. It has a pale green colour, from four to ten inches 
high. The spike on which the fructification lies, issues from 
the sheathing part of the leaf, and is generally of the same 
height, sometimes much higher. The fruit bearing part is 
generally rather shorter than the other part of the spike 
beneath. When it is ripe, it appears notched on each side, 
bearing some resemblance to the teeth of a blunt saw. We 
almost always find it growing in stifi* and badly drained clay 
fields. Cultivation will diminish, but not altogether exter- 
minate it. A friend informs us, that “in some fields to the 
north of Wootton, a village near Charmouth, the Adder’s- 
tongue grows so plentifully, as to give them a peculiar 
shade.” Seldom does the fruit appear on the spike, through 
the ruthless hand of the mower, who befriends not the stu- 
dent of nature’s works. 
Our attention was directed to this plant by a “clever 
woman,” who pronounced it the component part of one of 
