Rootstock erect, fleshy. Stem simple, two to ten inches high, bearing
one smooth, entire leaf about midway, and a terminal spike embracing the
sporangia, coherent in two ranks on its edges. (Generic name from the Greek
meaning the tongue of a snake, in allusion to the narrow spike of the
sporangia.)
In moist meadows or rarely on dry slopes. "Overlooked rather than rare."
New England states and in general widely distributed. July. Often grows
in company with the ragged orchis. The ancient ointment known as "adder's
speare ointment" had the adder's tongue leaves as a chief ingredient, and
is said to be still used for wounds in English villages.
"For them that are with newts or snakes or adders stung,
He seeketh out a herb that's called adder's tongue."
[Illustration: Adder's Tongue. _Ophioglossum vulgatum_]
Var. _minus_, smaller; fronds often in pairs. The sterile segment
yellowish-green, attached usually much below the middle of the plant. Sandy
ground, New Hampshire to New Jersey.
Var. _Engelmánni_. (Given specific rank in Gray.) Has the sterile segment
thicker and cuspidate, the stipe slender and the secondary veins forming
a fine network within the meshes of the principal ones. Virginia and
westward.
Var. _arenàrium_. (From the Latin, _arèna_, meaning sand, being found in
a sandy soil.) Probably a depauperate form of _Ophióglossum vulgàtum_ and
about half as large. A colony of these ferns was discovered growing in poor
soil at Holly Beach, New Jersey.