79 



To thrive under cultivation, the Flowering Fern should be 

 planted in a shady situation, either in peat or a mixture of peat 

 and yellow loam, and be plentifully supplied with water; with 

 these requirements it may be grown with little, if any, deteriora- 

 tion of its wild luxuriance, and will constitute one of the most 

 beautiful ornaments of the fern garden, as well on account of its 

 own stately habit, as by the contrast its foliage presents to that of 

 the other large species. When planted near water, the outer 

 fronds often assume an elegant curve, bending over so as to dip 

 their extremities into the pond or rivulet, and it is in such situa- 

 tions that they attain their greatest length. 



Genus 17. BOTRYCHIUM. 



GEN. CHAU. Fructification naked, clustered on a contracted 

 branched frond, forming a unilateral panicle. Thecse sessile, 

 globose, opaque, two-valved, opening vertically. 



The name is from the Greek ySorpv?, a bunch of grapes, which 

 the branched clusters of globular thecse somewhat resemble. 



In this and the following genus, Ophioglossum, the venation, 

 instead of being circinate as in ferns generally, is straight. The 

 fructification, resembling in Botrychium that of Osmunda in dis- 

 position and origin from the branches of the rachis, differs in the 

 coriaceous and non-reticulated texture of the thecse. The species 

 are few, but widely distributed, extending into Australia in the 

 southern hemisphere. North America yields about half the num- 

 ber at present known, viz. five species : of these B. Virginicum is 

 remarkable as being the largest of the genus, and is known there 

 by the name of Rattle-snake Fern, probably, as Pursh observes, 

 from its growing in places where those reptiles are generally 

 found, and yielding them an agreeable covert, though it is stated 

 by others to be one of the Indian remedies for the bite. 



BOTRYCHIUM LUNARIA. Moonwort. TAB. XLV. 



Barren frond pinnate : pinnae lunate or fan-shaped, notched or 

 crenate on the outer margin. Fertile frond springing apparently 

 from the common rachis. 



Botrychium Lunaria, Swartz. Hooker and Arnott. Babington. 

 Moore. Newman. Osmunda Lunaria, Linnaus. E. B. 318. 



The Moonwort, though scarcely to be considered a common 

 species, is not at all confined in its distribution, either in Great 

 Britain or Ireland ; in the former, its localities are only limited 

 by the two extremes of the Isles of Wight and Shetland, in the 



