H A R T ’S-TONGUE.
S c o l o p e n d r iu m v u l g a r e .—Symons, Smith, Hooker, Mackay,
Gray, Francis.
Scolopendrium officinarum.-—Swartz, Willdenow.
Asplenium Scolopendrium.—Linneus, Bolton, Hudson, Lightfoot,
Berkenhout.
LOCALITIES.
E n g la n d ,
WSCaOlÍLeAs .KD. [Universallydistributed.
I r e l a n d . J
T h e Hart’s-Tongue is a particularly handsome and ornamental
fern : its habit is well marked, and very decidedly different from
every other British species. I believe it is universally, although
not abundantly distributed : it so frequently grows in the thickest
part of hedges that it may readily escape observation, and thus
not appear so abundant as it really is. In Scotland I formd it
sparingly distributed, hut I never passed a day without recognizing
it in some few localities. In Ireland it is much more
abundant; it is not only scattered generally over the island, hut
occurs in some localities in very great abundance, particularly in
the neighbourhood of Sligo, and in the demesne of Muckruss,
near Killarney; it here grows among the underwood, in the
shrubberies, &c. in large luxuriant tufts, the fronds radiating
from a common centre, and each being gracefully arched in a
semicircle, like the long feathers of a cock’s tail. I have endeavoured
to shew this form in the Vignette at page 93, and the
ordinary pendulous character of the plant
is shewn in the margin, and at page 1. The
H art’s-Tongue is very commonly found on j / \ / T ~ \ ^
walls and ruins ; and it seems particularly ).-4 )
to delight in old wells, in which last situation Kl/ / /
its fronds sometimes grow to a very large
size.
The roots are black, stout, and very long and
strong : the rhizoma is tufted, blackish, scaly,
and almost spherical: the young fronds make
their appearance in April, growing in an
erect position, the apex remaining circinate ;
hy degrees they become horizontal, and at
last pendulous; they arrive at maturity by
the end of September, and continue in full
vigour throughout the winter, and until
those of the ensuing year make their appearance
/
: they are fertile only. \ i\
The form of the frond is elongate, linear,
and quite undivided, acute at the apex, and
cordate at the base. The naked portion of the \ \
rachis varies from a tenth to about a third of \ \ \
the entire length of the frond; it is of a dark
purple colour, and rather scaly at the base : /
in some specimens, hut these are generally \ K \
young, the entire plant is hirsute, in others
perfectly glabrous. The seedling plants put
on a variety of forms; a few of them are
shewn at the top of the cut in the margin. , / /
The frond is liable to two rather remark-
able variations : the first of these is, when
the margin is very much longer than the
rachis, and is compelled to assume a wavy
or curled form; this is the variety called crispum hy Mr.
Francis, and is figured at the head of the Introduction of this
work : the second is when the end is multifid, hut this seems
rather a monstrosity than a variety, and has a remarkable ugly
and deformed appearance : see the divided termination in the
annexed cut.