FERN TRIBE 157 
their labours, just as the German chemist Glauber, in his ardent pursuit of 
alchemy, discovered the sulphate of soda, since called Glauber’s Salts. 
Gerarde, who calls the notions prevalent in his time of the magical powers 
of the Moonwort “drowsy dreams and illusions,” yet held the general 
opinion of its medical efficacy, and its use as an application to wounds. 
The frond of our common Moonwort rises very early in spring, and would 
not, in its young condition, suggest the idea that it was a fern. It seems at 
first but an upright simple stem, about an inch high, but this is in fact a 
bud, enclosing the frond within it; the lower part or rachis of the frond, 
thus covered up, is thicker than the upper part, and the two branches of the 
young frond face each other, the fertile being clasped by the barren one, 
while the whole is closely wrapped in scale-like sheaths. The plant, when in 
June it has become fully developed, is from three to eight, or more rarely ten, 
inches in height, of a dull yellowish-green colour, the lower part or stipes 
being succulent and hollow, and having at its base the remains of the scale- 
like sheath which once invested it. About halfway up it divides into two 
branches. The leafy branch is pinnate, and from three to eight pairs of 
crescent or fan-shaped leaflets are closely crowded upon it, their outer margin 
indented with slightly-rounded notches. The veins radiate towards the 
margin, one vein extending into each notch. The fertile branch of the fern 
is erect and branched, the branches being generally about the same in 
number as the pinnules on the leafy branch; these side pinne are again 
divided into lesser branches, on which the fructification grows. This forms 
a spike distinct from the leafy expansion, and is not, as in Osminda, a con- 
traction of the green part, nor are the clusters or capsules crowded, like those 
of that fern, into a mass; but though nearly touching each other, they are 
separate, and arranged in single rows along the branches of the spike. The 
capsules are globular in form, without stalks, smooth, composed of two 
concave valves, and are at first yellow and afterwards brown. The fern 
varies in different situations, and in one form the pinnz are pinnatifid ; but 
it is at all times so distinct from any other British fern that it is never 
difficult of recognition. It is known throughout Europe and Northern Asia. 
It is sometimes called Osminda lundria. 
2. Chamomile-leaved Moonwort (B. matricaricefoliwm).—A form 
known to the botanists two centuries ago as occurring in this country, and 
distinguished by Ray as Lunaria minor foliis dissectis, is mentioned in some 
modern works as B. rutaceum, and specimens collected on the Sands of Barry 
by Mr. Cruickshanks, in 1839, have been by some referred to under this 
name, whilst others consider them more correctly named B. matricariefolium. 
Unfortunately, only a drawing (reproduced in Newman’s “ British Ferns”) 
exists of the Barry examples. In 1887, Dr. St. Brody found on the seashore 
at Stevenston, Ayrshire, a Moonwort which appears to agree with the Conti- 
nental L. matricariefolium. A figure and description of it were given by 
Mr. W. Whitwell, F.L.S., in the Journal of Botany, 1898, and the publicity 
thus ensured will probably set botanists searching for it, and perhaps result 
in its addition to the lists of undoubted British ferns. It differs from 
&. lunaria in having a longer stipes and more stunted leafy portions, the 
pinne lance-shaped and pinnatifid, the lobes somewhat wedge-shaped. The 
