OPHIOGLOSSACEJE. 25 



of the barren portion ; lamina a compound spike, triangular or 

 deltoid, with the primary branches spreading. 



Var. a. genuinum. 

 Margins of the pinnae entire or crenate. 



var. /3. incisum. Milde. 



B. Lunaria, var. Moorei, Lowe, Native Ferns, Vol. II. Tab. 76 b. 

 B. Lunaria, var. rutaceum, Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. pp. 83, 252. 



Margins of the pinnae rather deeply and irregularly incised. 



In pastures and on heaths where the herbage is short. Not very 

 common but generally distributed, occurring from the extreme south 

 of England north to Orkney and Shetland. Sparsely distributed 

 throughout Ireland, and reported in the ' Cybele Hibernica ' to be 

 plentiful in some of the limestone pastures of Gralway and Clare. 

 Yar. /3, Halifax, Yorkshire ; Crosby Ravensworth, Westmoreland ; 

 Horsley, Tyneside, Northumberland ! Pentland Hills, Edinburgh ! 

 Kilnasaton, Dublin. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Caudex or rootstock obliquely descending, thickened upwards, 

 creeping, sending forth fleshy root-fibres which are simple or once or 

 twice branched. Plant 2 to 10 inches high ; stipes stout, clothed at 

 the base with a brown lacerated membrane formed from the decayed 

 frond of the preceding year, and enclosing within its hollow base 

 the rudiment of the succeeding year's frond. Sterile branch J to 3 

 inches long, with from 3 to 8 pairs of fleshy bright-green pinnae. 

 These pinnae are from -J to \ inch long and usually broader, the 

 larger ones nearly semicircular and attached by a wedge-shaped 

 base, each side of which is curved, so as to leave a blunt cusp directed 

 backwards on either side where it meets the curve of the semicircle ; 

 the upper pinnae attain little more than a quarter of a circle, and 

 have the wedge-shaped base more excavated on the posterior than 

 on the anterior side of the base. The pinnae are all connected by a 

 herbaceous strip down each side of the midrib of the barren branch of 

 the frond ; when young these pinnae or segments are folded inwards 

 over the fertile branch of the spike, the lower cusp of each pinna over- 

 lapping the upper cusp of the pinna situated below it; the terminal 

 lobe is commonly trifid. The stalk of the fertile branch between 

 the barren branch and the base of the spike is from \ to 1\ inches 

 long ; the spike itself is from \ to 1\ inches, the primary branches 

 spread horizontally to the right and left ; these branches, or at least 

 the lower ones, are generally compound and triangular, becoming 



VOL. XII. E 



