87 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
D 
W 
NOVEMBER 11 — 17 , 1856. 
Weather ni 
Barometer. 
car Lon 
Thermo. 
DON IN 
Wind. 
1855. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
11 
Tu 
The autumnal dagger Moth. 
30.226 — 30.104 
58—44 
s.w; 
00 
14 a. 7 
15 a. 4 
5 50 
14 
15 
40 
316 
12 
W 
Larch leaves fall. 
30.182—30.020 
50—42 
S.E. 
00 
16 
13 
rises. 
© 
15 
39 
317 
13 
Th 
Apricot leafless. 
30.012-29,9/2 
48—37 
N.E. 
00 
17 
12 
4 a 29 
10 
15 
30 
318 
14 
F 
Beech leafless. 
30.008—29.955 
40—2/ 
N.E. 
00 
19 
10 
5 14 
17 
15 
21 
319 
15 
S 
Titmice near houses. 
30.168—30.084 
47—22 
W. 
00 
21 
9 
6 17 
18 
15 
10 
320 
16 
Sun 
26 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.234—30.187 
4/ — 27 
S.W. 
00 
23 
7 
7 31 
19 
14 
59 
321 
17 
M 
Necrobia rufipes. 
30.223—30.185 
47 — 42 
N.E. 
00 
24 
6 
8 51 
20 
14 
47 
322 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswiclc, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 49 . 8 °, and 35.5°, respectively. The greatest heat, 63°, occurred on the 12ih, in 1841 ; and the lowest cold, 15°, 
on the l6th, in 1841. During the period 1)5 days were tine, and on 101 rain fell. 
OPHIOGLO'SSUM VULGA-TUM. 
That this is a Fern very distinct from ail others is de¬ 
monstrated by the fact that it has never received from 
botanists any other generic name than OpJiioglossum, 
and with but a solitary exception no other specific 
name than that under which we notice it. The ex¬ 
ception is 0. ovaturn, the name under which it is de¬ 
scribed by Mr. Salisbury. Its English name is equally 
unique, being known by no other than Adder’s Tongue. 
The botanical name is merely a translation of this, 
derived from the Greek words ophis, a serpent, and 
glossa, a tongue. 
Moot small, carrot - shaped, with numerous stout, 
yellow, smooth, fibrous rootlets, spreading horizontally. 
Frond from three to nine, and even more inches high; 
its stem pale green, round, hollow, and tapering down¬ 
wards ; the barren lobe of the frond, usually called the 
leaf, stalkless, solitary, egg-shaped, lurid green, nearly 
upright, sheathing the stem; the fertile lobe, which 
gives the plant its name, from its somewhat tongue-like 
shape, is really a spike of fructification, as in the 
Botrycldum and Osmunda ; it rises from withinsido the 
base of the barren lobe, stalked, narrow, slightly taper¬ 
ing upwards, pointed, bearing the fructification in a 
line along each of its two edges; the fructification is 
embedded in roundish, yellow masses, which, gaping 
when the spores have escaped, present a series of clefts 
along each edge. This tongue-shaped lobe is usually 
entire, but sometimes is divided into two; the leaf¬ 
like lobe, also, though in general whole, is occasionally 
deeply cleft at the top. 
It is usually found in meadows and moist pastures; 
but we have also found it in Hampshire, in an open 
copse, in an old chalk-pit at Abbot’s Barton, near Win 
Chester. 
In England it has been found, also, at Middleton-one- 
row, Durham; Round House, near Richmond, York¬ 
shire; West Felton, Shropshire; behind Heawood Hall, 
near Alderley, Cheshire ; near Warrington, Lancashire; 
near Brairnston, Leicestershire; Eleanor and Love 
Lane, near Derby, Derbyshire ; Colwick, Nottingham¬ 
shire; Broadmoor, near Birmingham; Pottery Car; 
near Blymhill, Staffordshire; near Bristol; at the sido 
of a pond on Wike Farm, Sion Lane, Isleworth ; near 
the ladder-stile, Osterley Park, near Brentford, Mid¬ 
dlesex; at Beddington, near Bungay, and Meltingham 
Castle, Suffolk; four miles south of Dorking, Surrey; 
meadows of Longleat, Wilts; about Slateford, near 
Barnstaple, Devon; and in various parts of Norfolk, 
Herts, Kent, and Elants. 
In Scotland, in Dulmeney Woods, near Edinburgh; 
in Orkney ; at Balmuto ; and at Carlowrie. 
In Wales, near Wrexham ; and on the lawn of the 
Observatory, Dunsink, and many other parts of Ireland. 
The first writer mentioning it as an English plant 
is Dr. William Turner, who, in the third part of his 
Herball, published in 1508, says, “ The Adder’s Tongue, 
or Ophyoglosson, groweth in moyst and medowes in the 
end of April; ” adding, after giving a very characteristic 
woodcut, “ This is a wounde herbe, and healeth wouudes j 
which are almost uncurable, or at the least wonderfully 
hard to be healed. The nature of it is also to dryve 
away great swell in ges, and to prevent extreme inflam¬ 
mations. Some use to bruise it with Swyne’s grese, and 
to kepe it aud lave it upon swellinges; but I councell 
rather to seth it when it is greno with sallet oyle, and to i 
kepe it, and then will it be good both for swellings and 
woundes also.” This is still used as an application to 
No. CCCCXXTV. Vol. XVII 
