52 THE MOONWORT AND ITS ALLIES. 
ward as if half inclined to coil 
after the manner of the true ferns. 
It seldom grows more than a few 
inches high, twelve inches being 
probably the maximum height. 
The blade is usually sessile, longer 
than wide, and borne at or above 
the middle of the stem. It is 
usually pinnate, though some- 
what disposed to vary, and has 
from two to eight pairs of lobes 
or pinnz which may be set close 
together or some distance apart. 
In outline, they are fan-shaped, 
or with a rounded outer edge 
which gives them enough the shape of a 
half-moon to suggest the common name. 
{ The fertile division is sometimes no longer 
than the sterile and is twice or thrice pin- 
nate. The frond is annual, dying at the 
} approach of winter. The bud for the next 
year is enclosed in the base of the stipe. 
In the Old World, this plant was once 
held in great repute for its supposed power 
of working all sorts of wonders. Its old 
names of ‘“‘blasting-root’”” and “spring- 
wurzel” were given it under the impres- 
sion that the strongest locks would 
give way if it were merely brought 
in contact with them. To a more 
matter-of-fact generation it will 
doubtless seem strange that noone 
thought to make a test of its pow- 
MOONWORT. Botrychium Lunaria, 
