3M 



MOONWORT. 



Genus. — Boteychium. Caudex (?) slender, descending per- 

 pendicularly: roots stout, succulent, unbranched, their arrange- 

 ment on the caudex (?) subYertieillate, their direction horizontal 

 amongst the radicles of grasses, to which they appear parasiti- 

 cally (?) attached : caudex (?) surmounted by a loose sheath, 

 which incloses the base of the erect succulent stipes : frond 

 produced within the base of last year's stipes, composed of two 

 branches, the outer one barren, leafy, the inner, a racemose pa- 

 nicle of spherical, distinct, sessile, crowded, bivalved capsules. 



Species. — Lunaeia. Barren branch of frond sessile, situate 

 at the summit of the stipes, linear, obtuse, pinnate : pinnae 

 three to seven pairs, sessile, flabelliform, with crenate margins, 

 without any median axis of growth, their veins radiating from 

 the sessile base. 



Osmunda lunaria, Limi. Sp. PI. 1519 ; Light/. Fl. Scot. 652 ; 

 Huds. Fl. Ang. 449; Bolt. FU. Brit. 4, t. 4 ; With. Arr. 

 762 ; Sm. E. B. 318. 

 Botrychium lunaria, Sm. E. F. iv. 328 ; Mack. Fl. Hib. 346 ; 

 Franc. 65 ; Neivm. N. A. 30, F. 337, Phytol. App. xxxii. ; 

 Hook, and Am. 578 ; Bab. 417 ; Moore, 215. 

 The figure of this plant in 'English Botany' (E. B. 318), 

 under the name of Osmunda lunaria, gives a correct idea of its 

 appearance. 



The genus Botrychium was divided by Swartz from the 

 Linnean genus Osmunda, and has been adopted by nearly all 

 subsequent botanists. The Linnean specific name of lunaria 

 has remained unchanged. 



The moonwort is found throughout Europe and Asia, ex- 

 tending even into Kamtchatka ; and a very similar species, by 



