CRYPTOGAMIA, FILICES. 205 

the compound raceme, separate, naked, 1- 
celled, valves 2, connected behind, open- 
ing transversely.—NV'utt. 
1. B. scape below with one frond; frond sub-bi- obliquum, 
ternate; folioles oblong-lanceolate, serrulate, 
. dilated at the base, unequally cordate: spikes 
4 bipinnate.—/Villd. 
Nearaswamp on Cooper’s creek, not far from the Bridge. 
Perennial. July. 
2. B. scape below with one frond; frond three- dissectam. 
parted-bipinnatifid ; segments linear, 2-cleft ; 
2-toothed at the apex.— Willd. : 
Icon. Schk. filic. t, 158. Pluk. amalth. t. 427. 
f, 5. 
On the edges of woods, on the Schuylkill and Wissahickon ; 
and on the Botannic-garden ground of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. Perennial. June. 
5. B. hirsute; scape in the middle of the frond ; Virginicum. 
frond subternate, 3-parted, bi-pinnatifid ; folio- 
les incised-pinnatifid ; segments obtuse, sub-tri- 
dentate ; spikes bi-pinnate, divaricate.— Willd. 
and Pursh. 
Botrypus Virginicus, Mich. 
Osmunda Virginica, Sp. Pl. 1579. 
O. multifida, Gmel. 
Icon. Schk. filic. t. 156. 
Rattlesnake Fern. 
A large and very elegant species, very common in all our 
fertile woods, delighting in shade and moisture. Ihave twice 
received this plant from Kentucky, with an assurance that it 
was an Indian remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake; hence 
the name above, and not as Pursh supposes, because the plant 
grows near the haunts of that reptile. The roots and stems 
taste like Ginseng, and the hot infusion of the whole plant is 
an agreeable-flavoured tea. Perennial. June. 

