C 108 3
O P H I O G L O S S U M vulgatum.
Adder s 'Tongue.
C R T P T 0 G A M I A Filices.
Gen . Char. Capfules numerous, connedted in a two-
ranked fpike by an enveloping membrane, roundifh,
burftingtranfverfely, deftitute o f a ring. Seeds many,
very minute.
S pec. Char. Leaf ovate, without veins, bearing the
fpike. ,
Sy n . Ophiogloflum vulgatum. Linn. Sp. PI- 1518.
Hudf. FI. An. 4 4 9 . With. Bot. Arr. V. 3. 4 5 . Relh.
Cant. 386.
Ophiogloflum. Rail Syn. 128.
I tI e RE we have another vulnerary, which Ray fays “ is
excellent, either taken internally or applied outwardly;” and
that “ an infufion of its leaves in olive oil is famous for curing
wounds and ulcers. The powder is good for ruptures.” Gerarde
remarks, that the above oil is of fo beautiful a green, many have
fuppofed it made of verdegris. It is at prefent out of ufe, though
aftringent and tonic; the (hops abounding with much better
medicines of that defcription.
This lingular vegetable is by no means very uncommon in
boggy meadows, and is to be found in perfection about
May,or not later than June. Mr. B. M. Forfter favoured us with
this fpecimen from a field at Walthamftow. The whole herb
is fucculent and very fmooth. Roots of a few fimple fibres like
thofe of the Orchis tribe, from whofe point of union arifes a
fimple Item, with one or more buds for the next year. The
fpike, generally fimple, is very rarely found cloven more or lefs
deeply. When.ripe it fplits tranfverfely on each fide into numerous
little portions, from whofe interfhices the feeds are discharged,
the capfular valves being imbedded in the portions of
the fpike. p l | .
The genus has little connexion with ferns, except through
the medium of the true Ofmundas—fee Dr. Stokes’s excellent
remarks in the third volume of Bot. Arr. p. 46, &c. The Lin-
mean term from cannot without Violence be ufed in the genus
of Ophiogloflum, as there is no neceflary connexion between
the leaf and fructification, one fpecies, 0 . nudicaule, if not
more, having them on diftinct ftalks.