120 FERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



Water Fern, says : " This hath all the virtues mentioned 

 in other ferns, and is much more effectual than they, 

 both for inward and outward griefs, and is accounted 

 good in wounds, bruises, or the like. The decoction to 

 be drunk, or boiled into an ointment of oil as a balsam 

 or balm, and so it is singular good against bruises, and 

 bones broken or out of joint." The root, when boiled, 

 is very slimy, and is used in the north of Europe for 

 stiffening linen. 



Sub-Order III. — Ophioglossacb^. 



18. BoTRTCHiuM (Moon wort). 



1. B. Lundria (Common Moonwort). — i'Vo??^? pinnate; 

 pinnae crescent-shaped, or fan-shaped. It is on the dry 

 open moor, amongst heather and heath-beUs, that we 

 must look for the Moonwort, which, though not a com- 

 mon plant, is more or less distributed throughout the 

 United Kingdom. In England it seems to occur most 

 frequently in the counties of Staffordshire, Surrey, and 

 Yorkshire ; generally on old pasture lands or heathy 

 places ; but it has occasionally been gathered in a wood. 

 Like the Elowering Fern, its habit differs much from 

 that of ferns in general, and it is well named Moonwort, 

 from the usually crescent-shaped leafy pinnae. Doubt- 

 less this form induced the old alchemists and professors 

 of magic to value it so highly, for moon-shaped plants, 

 or parts of plants, were readily believed to indicate 

 some wondrous potency. And several old poets refer 

 to it :— 



