| 释义 |
ˈadder's-tongue Herb.
Popular name of a genus of ferns (Ophioglossum Linn.) which bear the fructification on a distinct simple spike springing from the base of the barren frond, which clasps it when young, so as to suggest the mouth and tongue of a serpent.
1578Lyte Dodoens 135 Adders tonge is an herbe of a maruelous strange nature. 1597Gerarde Herball ii. lxxxiv. §3, 327 Adders toong groweth in moist medowes throughout most parts of Englande. 1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxxii. 488 Adder's-Tongue has the fructification on a spike, in a jointed row along each side of it; when they are ripe, these joints gape transversely. 1820Keats Lamia ii. 224 The leaves of willow and of adder's tongue. 1862Ansted Channel Islands ii. viii. (ed. 2) 183 Two species of adder's-tongue are found in Guernsey.
2. Dialectally, applied loosely to various other plants, superficially more or less resembling the above, as Wake Robin, Lily of the Valley, etc. See Britten and Holland Eng. Plant Names.
Add:3. Any of various dog's-tooth violets (genus Erythronium) native to N. America, esp. (more fully yellow adder's-tongue) E. americanum. N. Amer.
1818A. Eaton Man. Bot. (ed. 2) 242 Erythronium... dens-canis (dog tooth violet, adder's tongue..) leaves oblong-ovate, glabrous, spotted. 1820in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1832) 2nd Ser. IX. 150 Plants, which are indigenous in the township of Middlebury, [Vermont, include]..Erythronium lanceolatum, (Pursh.) Adder's tongue. 1894J. Burroughs Riverby 25 Erythronium... How it came to be called adder's-tongue I do not know; probably from the spotted character of the leaf, which might suggest a snake. 1947Amer. Midland Naturalist July 37 Yellow Adders-tongue [is] abundant in bottomland forest. 1962A. Lurie Love & Friendship xiii. 249 Thin green grass grew in the clearings, and adder's-tongues with their leopard-spotted leaves. 1968Peterson & McKenny Field Guide Wildflowers Northeastern & North-Central N. Amer. 102 Trout-lily, adder's-tongue Erythronium americanum... March–May. |