it, are tortuous or drooping. They appear to be incipient stems of
another plant, being furnished with a few very small lanceolate leaves,
and terminated by membranaceous, abortive, minute foliage. Leaves
alternate, near each other, crowning the top of the stem, mostly five in
number, often three, ovate, acute, attenuated at base, glabrous, entire;
costa conspicuous, but collateral nerves indistinct in many specimens,
very delicately ciliated on the margin; ciliee white. Flowers large,
situated on peduncles a quarter of an inch in length, two or three in
number, generally three, peach-blossom-red; carina short; wings
large, ovate, acute; peniform appendage large. Grows “ in sphagnous
swamps and bogs, principally on the mountains.” Pursh. “From Pennsylvania
to the mountains of Carolina, forming almost exclusive carpets
of great extent in the Pine forests of Lake Huron.” Nuttall.
Flowers from May till August.
This beautiful little plant has the largest flowers of any species of
the extensive genus Polygala. They are prettily situated in the midst
of the small, delicate leaves of the plant, to which they form a vivid
contrast. The root possesses something of the pungent taste of the
Polygala senega, and affects the fauces somewhat in the same manner.
Of its medicinal virtues nothing is known, though it is probable
it is not destitute of power.
Fig. i i represents the whole plant, in flower, of its natural size.
Many specimens are smaller than the figure represents.
5P&3BJLE :W 2 o—S*a®0
OPHIOGLOSSUM BULBOSUM.
BULBOUS-ROOTED ADDER’S TONGUE.
Cryptogamia, Filices, Linn. Filices, Juss.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Spike cauline; frond sub-cordate-ovate, acute, reticulated; root bulbous. B.
SYNONYM.
O phioglossum crotalopboroides, Walt. FI. Car. 256.
P lant about a span high, often shorter. Root perennial, a globose
umber-brown bulb, with two or three radicles proceeding
from the under part, and invested with tunicated scales at its apex.
Stipe simple, naked, terete, supporting a single, heart-shaped, acute,
entire frond, reticulately veined on its upper disk. Spike about three-
quarters of an inch long, linear, acuminated, pedunculate. Pedun-
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