CRYPTOGAMI A FILICES. 1 9 



2. P- crispa, frond twice or thrice pinnate; barren leaflets wedge- 

 shaped, cut ; fertile ones elliptic-oblong, obtuse, convex. 



Hob. Among loose stones on our higher hills, rare, in tufts of 

 a bright pea-green hue. " On rocks at the foot of Cheviot 

 above Langley-ford," Winch. On Cheviot near the 

 summit, sparingly. On the south bank of the White- 

 adder, about half a mile above Abbey St Bathans, 

 sparingly, Mr Thomas Brown. (On the most eastern 

 of the Eildon hills, Roxburghshire, abundant.) July. If 



Sou THEY describes this as " the stone-fern or mountain-pars- 

 ley, the most beautiful of all our wild plants, resembling 

 the richest point lace in its fine filaments and exquisite in- 

 dentations." 



9. BOTRYCHIUM. 



1. B. lunaria, leaf solitary, pinnate ; leaflets fan-shaped, notched : 

 herb smooth, scarcely a span high. Common Moonwort. 



Hob. Hilly pastures, rare. On Bemerside hill in the west 

 of Berwickshire, Mr W. Baird. Coldingham Moor above 

 Lumsden. Near Langley-ford. June. If. 



This curious plant could not fail to attract the attention of 

 the astrologists. The leaflets are like unto a half-moon, 

 and a herb impressed with the semblance of the planet to 

 which this lower sphere is a vassal, cannot but contain its 

 virtues in essence, and verily 



" have power 



O'er sprites in planetary hour." 



Hence " it hath beene vsed among the Alchymistes *, and 

 witches to doe wonders withall, who say, that it will loose 

 lockes, and make them to fall from the feet of horses that 

 graze where it doth grow, and hath beene called Martagon, 

 whereas they are all but drowsie dreames and illusions.' ' 

 Yet even the incredulous GERARDE, Master in Chirvrge- 

 rie, affirms that moonwort is singular to heale greene and 

 fresh wounds ; and Dr NEEDHAM maintains that it is to be 

 nnmbered " inter certissima dysenterise remedia," when ap - 

 plied by way of ointment to the region of the kidneys, a 

 direction in which the Doctor's faith in the doctrine of 

 signatures appears, and hence these panegyrics. 



* CHAUCER mentions it as part of the Alchymists' furniture, 

 *' And herbes coude I tell eke many on, 

 " As egremonie, valerian, and Lnnarie" ' 



