CHAPTER IL 



BOTRYCHIUM, Swartz. 

 (Bot-rych'-]-um,) 

 Moonwort. 



HIS small genus is composed of very interesting and pretty, 

 though not decorative, Ferns of dwarf habit, and it forms 

 Genus 75 in Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis Fihcum." All the 

 known species are native of temperate regions, viz. : Europe, 

 from Iceland and Norway to Spain ; Austraha, N'ew Zealand, 

 and Tasmania, the Himalayas and the Neilgherries, Japan, the United 

 States, and British North America ; but only one species, B. Lunaria, is 

 indigenous in Great Britain. 



The name is derived from the Greek bo try s, signifying a bunch or cluster 

 — in reference, no doubt, to the bunch-hke disposition of the fructification, by 

 which, as well as by their peculiar mode of growth, the species belonging to 

 this genus are distinguished from all others. The plant is composed of 

 a slender tap-root, from which issue numerous cylindrical, yellowish fibres, 

 disposed in a whorl (circle), but spreading horizontally in the soil : from 

 this arises a single stem of a fleshy nature, and from about the middle of 

 which the barren and fertile fronds are produced, the fertile one appearing 

 to be simply the continuation of the stem, which ends in a cluster of small, 

 round, light brown capsules. These capsules are sessile (stalkless), and arranged 

 in two rows on the face of spikes, which form a compound panicle. A latent 

 bud, containing the embryo of the frond for the following year, is invariably 

 noticed at the base of the stem. 



