(Ophioglossum vulgatum).
Ophioglossæe, a sub-order of Filices or Ferns (q.v.), consisting of a few rather elegant little plants with an erect or pendulous stem, which has a cavity instead of pith, leaves with netted veins, and the spore-cases (thecæ) collected into a spike formed at the edges of an altered leaf, 2-valved, and without any trace of an elastic ring. They are found in warm and temperate countries, but abound most of all in the islands of tropical Asia. Several species are European, and two are British, the Botrychium lunaria, or Moonwort (q.v.), and the Common Adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum), which was at one time supposed to possess magical virtues, and was also used as a vulnerary, although it seems to possess only a mucilaginous quality—on account of which some of the other species have been employed in broths. It is a very common plant in England, its abundance in some places much injuring pastures.