
GENERA AND SPECIES. 139 
PLATE LV. 
BOTRYCHIUM. Swartz. 
MooNwWORT. 
GEN. CHAR.—Sporangia sessile, naked, on the margin of the 1-3 
pinnated rachis, arranged in a double row; fronds with a sterile and 
fertile segment, the fertile contracted; root fleshy; veins forked. 
This interesting genus belongs to the sub-order Ophio- 
glossacez, which, as has already been mentioned in the 
article on classification (Page 25), occupies a questionable 
place among the true ferns.* The genus is distinguished 
chiefly by its having the organs of fructification in an erect 
panicle, borne on a separate stem or branch of the frond. 
Hofmeister is of the opinion that the fertile frond is a shoot 
of the sterile one. The spore-cases, especially when young, 
resemble globular berries, which, as soon as they become 
mature, open vertically, presenting two symmetrical valves. 
These are somewhat coriaceous in texture, and opaque, 
and are destitute of an elastic ring, as in the true ferns. 
According to Davenport, external characters are not to be 
depended upon, the buds or spores furnishing the only un- 
varying characters by which the different species can be 
recognized. Each sporangium is an entire lobe of a leaf, 
*For a full exposition of the Ophioglossacez I would refer the 
reader to the following works: Mettenius, Filices horte botanici 
Lipsiensis, 1856, p. 119; Milde, Monographia Botrychiorum, in 
Nova Acta Acad, Leop. Carolinz, 1858, vol. xxvi; Hofmeister, 
Germination, Development, and Fructification of the Higher Cryp- 
togamia (Ray Soc.) 1862, pp. 307-317; Hooker & Baker, Synopsis 
Filicum, 1868; Sachs, Text-book of Botany, Eng. ed., 1875, pp. 
378-383; Davenport, Notes on Botrychium Simplex, 1877; Daven- 
port, Vernation in Botrychia, in Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 1878, vol. 
vi, PP. 193-199. 
