174 MACOUN AND BURGESS ON 



thought to exert a wonderful effect in the cure of serpent-bites, wounds, burns and scalds. 

 It was also esteemed as an application to the inflamed udders of cows, and is still used in 

 parts of England for this purpose. 



Though rare, the Adder's-tongue in Canada has a wide range, extending from Nova 

 Srotia westward to Manitoba. Found in Nova Scotia previous to 1863 by McCulloch, of 

 Dalhousie College, but the exact locality of his specimens not known. Truemanville, 

 Cumberland Co., N. S. — A. J. Trueman. Hopeviifc and Cape Enrage, N. B. — J. Briltain. 

 Melbourne Tp., Richmond Co., Que. — Miss Mcintosh. Hemmingford, Que. — Goode. Beech- 

 wood, near Hemlock Lake, Ottawa, Out. — J. Fletcher. Ferry Point, Belleville, Out. ; Beaver 

 Meadow, between Hooper's Lake and the Hastings Road, Tudor Tp., Hastings Co., Out. ; 

 grassy places along the Trent, McCann's Island, Seymour Tp., Northumberland Co., Ont. ; 

 St. Thomas, Elgin Co., Ont. — Macoun. Valley of the Humber, Toronto, Ont. — Burgess. 

 Mouth of Rainy River, Lake of the "Woods. — O. M. Dawson. 



Genus II.— BOTRYCHIUM, Swz., Grape-Fern. 



This genus has the following points common to all the species. Rootstock short, 

 nearly erect, with clustered, fleshy roots, producing usually but a single frond each year. 

 Base of the stalk swollen where it encloses the bud, and generally covered with a loose, 

 outer sheath, the withered base of the stalk of the preceding year. All of them occa- 

 sionally subject to the variation of having the sterile sections transformed into fertile, and 

 vice versa, while sometimes, though much more rarely, there is a complete secondary fertile 

 spike springing either from the main stalk or from the axils of the sterile divisions. 



§ Base of stalk, which encloses the bud, closed on all sides. Sterile divi- 

 sion more or less fleshy. 

 # Sterile division usually placed at or above the middle of the plant. 

 Fronds never hairy. 



t Sterile division once pinnate or pinnatified, the pinnae never pinnately 

 lobed. 



1. — B. Ltjnakia, Swz., (Moonwort), A Hook, Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 265. Gray, Man., 671. 

 Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 293. Macoun's Cat., No. 2336. Watt, Can. Nat, IV, 364. Eaton, 

 Ferns of N. A, I, 29. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc, 72. 



Osmunda Lunaria, L. 



The Moonwort is a fleshy but non-evergreen plant, commonly about three to ten inches 

 high, growing on dry, grassy uplands, rocky places or exposed cliffs, and sometimes in rich 

 woods or boggy meadows. Sterile segment closely sessile near the middle of the plant, 

 oblong in outline, obtuse, and simply pinnate ; pinnse crowded, commonly 5-15 in num- 

 ber, semi-lunar from a broad, wedge-shaped base, the sides concave and the outer margin 

 crenate, the terminal division usually two- or three-lobed ; fertile segment bi-tripinnate, 

 long stalked, as a rule overtopping, often considerably, the sterile. Bud smooth, with the 

 apex of the sterile segment bent over and outside of the nearly straight fertile one. 



Variations in this fern are not uncommon, and cases of forking rootstocks, each of the 

 branches giving rise to a frond, are reported. The sterile segment is occasionally more or 



