THE LITTLE ADDERS-TONGUE. 
12 . 
THE LITTLE ADDERS-TONGUE. 
Ophioglossum lusitanicum. 
Plate 1, Eig. 11. 
TINY little Fern, sufficiently near in its 
resemblance to the Adders-tongue major 
to claim close relationship. A British 
Fern it is, but hardly an inhabitant of England, — 
although it has been stated that specimens have 
been found in Cornwall. But in Guernsey it has 
its habitats, having been found near some rocks in 
that charming little nook, Petit Bot Bay. Like 
the Adders-tongue major, Ophioglossum lusitani- 
cum has one barren frond — sometimes two — and an 
erect spike of fructification. But the barren frond, 
instead of being pear-shaped, is lance-shaped, 
simple, unscalloped, much smaller, and much nar- 
rower than in Vulgatum . Like the latter, it 
rises from a fleshy, brittle cluster of twisted 
roots ; but unlike Vulgatum , barren stem and 
seed-bearing spike, instead of rising some dis- 
277 
