GENERA AND SPECIES. 143 
PLATE LVII. 
BOTRYCHIUM TERNATUM. Var. Obliquum. Milde. 
TERNATE MOONWORT. 
This Moonwort is easily distinguished from the preced- 
ing. The sterile panicle arises from the common stalk 
near the ground, and is therefore long petioled. ‘The tex- 
ture of the plant is altogether different from that of the 
Virginia Moonwort, in being coarse, thick, and succulent. 
The sterile frond is ternate, with oblong or lanceolate divi- 
sions, and, in this species, oblique at the base, toothed or 
irregularly pinnatifid, somewhat wavy, crisp or recurved, 
as shown in the Plate. 
This variety is the most common form of B. ternatum 
found in Kentucky. It is found in all our woods, and 
arrives at its greatest perfection in the months of July and 
August. The fertile frond remains green all winter. The 
vernation in Botrychia is very important, and Mr. Daven- 
port remarks that, “in B. ternatum and its varieties, the 
bud is very short and shaggy, the upper portion being so 
thickly covered with a hairy pubescence as to obscure the 
arrangement of the two fronds completely. This pubes- 
cence is wholly confined to the upper portion of the bud, 
the stalk remaining perfectly smooth.” He further ob- 
serves that he has not been able to verify Muilde’s state- 
ment ‘that in this species the apex of the fertile panicle 
is not only bent downward in the bud, but that the tip is 
again bent upward, being in fact sub-circinate, so that in 
his classification of the different kinds of vernation he 
places this species in a class by itself, which he calls ‘ver- 
natio sub-circinata.’”? He very justly says that, “if cor- 
rect, this would be a most important point, and would 
