THE MOONWORT AND ITS ALLIES. 59 
of intergrading specimens. The plant is quite fleshy 
and usually has the sterile part stalked and attached to 
the main stem near the base. It also occurs in Europe. 
The Lance-Leaved Grape Fern. 
In some parts of its range, the lance- 
leaved grape fern (Botrychium lanceola- 
tun) is very abundant but it is not un- 
common for collectors to search for years 
without finding it. As yet, compara- 
tively little is known about its habitats. 
In Canada it is said to grow on ‘the 
shaded mossy banks of streams and in 
rich moist woods and low pastures.” In 
central New York it is reported to be 
found “in shade, but generally in shaly 
soil that is almost barren of undergrowth 
and has buta slight covering of vegetable 
mould.” In Pennsylvania the author has 
seen hundreds of these plants growing in 
the rich moist hollows of beech and maple 
woods at an altitude of about 2,100 feet. 
The underground portion of this spe- 
cies consists of atangle ofstout roots, one 
of which, descending perpendicularly, 
gives off irregular whorls of other roots, at 
intervals. Single roots are frequently sev- 7 
eral times longer than the part of the 
plant above ground. The frond is some- 
what fleshy and from three to nine inches 
high with the sterile division sessile near —~f 
the top of the stem. It is somewhat Lancr-LeaveD 
. : 2 * GRAPE FERN. Botry- 
triangular in outline with two or more “Shin danccolatum 
