THE MOONWORT 



Botrychium Lunaria. 

 By Willard N. Clute. 



The moonwort, though rare in the settled parts of 

 North America, is a most cosmopolitan species. It is 

 recorded from Greenland and Alaska, and probably 

 occurs throughout most of British America, since it ex- 

 tends into southern Canada. It is pretty well distributed 

 in Europe and western Asia, as well as in the Himalayas, 

 and according to the latest authorities occurs in Pata- 

 gonia, Australia and New Zealand. In the United States 

 the plant is one of the rarest. It was formerly reported 

 from Connecticut, but this is now said to be due to a 

 wrong identification. A single specimen has been re- 

 ported from Vermont, and others have been found in 

 northern Michigan, Montana, and Minnesota. In the 

 Rockies it extends to Colorado and Utah. 



In central New York, in the same general region that 

 contains the hart's-tongue (Scolopendrium) , plants have 

 been found that until recently were considered identical 

 with this species, but which are now called Botrychium 

 Onondagense by a few botanists. If Botrychium Lunaria 

 was not known from other parts of our country, I could 

 look with more complacency upon the proposal to con- 

 sider the New York plant a distinct species, but when we 

 reflect how widely B. Lunaria is- distributed and make 

 allowances for the variation in the plant that this great 

 range of latitude, longitude, and altitude must entail, it 

 seems more logical to call all the plants by the name of 

 Lunaria. If these plants must have a name to distinguish 

 them, then it certainly should be Botrychium Lunaria 

 Onondagense. I doubt if botanists a hundred years hence 

 will consider the plants worth even a varietal name. 



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