THE COMMON MOONWORT 
Stipes етей, smooth, cylindrical, hol alent, having two or three vaseular bundles embedded 
in its tissue, its base surrounded by long brown sheaths, which are doubtless the persistent bases of 
former fronds ; about half the height of the entire frond ; dividing at top into two branches, of which 
оле is leafy, the other fertil 
D 
nation plicate, or folded straight, the fertile branch clasped by the sterile 
ms from three to eight or ten inches high, firm, stout, fleshy. Sterile branch smooth, dark 
glaucous green, pinnate, Pinn four to six or seven pairs, flabellate or Iunate, the margins nearly en 
or somewhat erenate, or more or less lobed; sometimes partially fertile. Fertile branch pinnate or 
bipinnate ; the narrow rachiform spikelets (whether answer 
to pinn or pinnules) fleshy, flattened 
and bearing on the face towards the sterile branch a double row of erect spore-cases, so that these 
spikelets are secund, and they are moreover more or less incurved, or subereet. Sometimes more than. 
‘one fertile branch is produced, and occasionally spore-cases occur on the edges of the barren pinna: 
Venation of the barren pinnae flabellato-fureate, i: e. the vein enters at the base, and becomes forked 
over and over again until the whole space is traversed by the contiguous slightly radiating veins and 
venules that do not extend quite to the margin. 
Fructification occupying the flattened rachiform divisions of the separate fertile branch of the frond. 
oro-eases sessile, standing егесі б.е at a right angle t 
each of these segments near the margin; smooth, spherical, without apparent rings or reticulations, 
bursting transversely, golden brown when mature, Spores smooth, roundish, oblong or angular 
«coloured. 
Duration. The erowns and roots are doubtless perennial, The fronds are annual, growing up in 
April or May, and becoming fully grown in June, afterwards gradually drying up and perishing with 
the summer's droug 
The ordin 
state of the Moonwort may be known by the double row of fan-shaped pinna whieh 
form the sterile branch of its frond. It is a plant not casily distinguished from the herbage among. 
which it grows, and on that account is probably often passed over without recognition, 
The variety rutaceum, which is perhaps entitled to specific rank, differs in its broader triangular 
twico-divided bı 
т branch—as though the form of the fertile branch were transferred to the barren 
and by the li 
ar form of the secondary divisions. It is reported to have been found ne 
а 
specimen, Though the Æ. rutaceum is by no means an unlikely plant to occur in G 
Buxton in 
Derbyshire, and on the sands of Barry near Dundes, but very sparingly. We have not seen 
ain, the fact 
of its occurrence must, as yet, ho regarded as doubtful 
No very marked success has been met with in cultivating tho Botrychium. Mr 
doubtful, as the plants have been dug out with the 
utmost care without any trace of adhesion to the roots of surrounding plants being discovered. ‘The 
difficulty of growing it, is probably after all ch 
fly owing to the almost unavoidable fluctuations o 
moisture to which artificially-cultivated plants are subject, and which, judging from the natural sites іш 
which this plant grows, it is unable to bear. ‘The best chances of success are to dig up the plants 
while growing with sods of the natural soil large enough to enclose the roots uninjured, or to take them 
with less soil at the dorm 
nt period, the position of the plants having of cour 
e been previously 
marked ; in either case to plant them in considerable masses of soil, n 
le up so as to imitate that 
from which they were taken as closely as possible, whether it be sandy 
loam or an unctuous peat, in 
both which they ocew 
Care must bo also taken to keep the s 
1 cool, and moderately as well as equ 
bly 
moistened. The plan of transplanting at the dormant period is certainly most in accordance with 
theoretical notions of success; and probably the shade afforded by other herbage such as grass, to the 
f the soil, would be found beneficial to the plants 
