﻿THE FERN BULLETIN 



101 



that we commonly associate with ferns, but the ternate 

 grape fern or Botrychium obliquum does not appear 

 until July or August — the latest to arrive of all our 

 ferns. 



Beteween these two extremes come several of the 

 small Botrychiums — the tiny moon wort by whose 

 magical power the shoes are drawn from the feet of 

 the newly shod steed: the little grape fern, the lance- 

 leaved, and others which in spite of their wide range 

 are rarely found, either because of their diminutive 

 size which causes them to be easily overlooked, or be- 

 cause they are really rare, or at least very local, in dis- 

 tribution. You may look for them in rich woods or 

 old pastures where the ground is moist but not wet but 

 it will be a red letter day indeed when you find them ! 



But while many of us must get our knowledge of 

 these rare forms from books or the herbariums of 

 more fortunate collectors we who live in the north- 

 eastern States may quite probably find on some sandy 

 hillside or beside some old pasture fence the common 

 grape fern, Botrychium obliquum, with some or all o:i 

 its varieties. It is a very fleshy plant and seems to 

 share the mechanical difficulties of fleshy people for it 

 is only bent over in the bud instead of being coiled in 

 the manner characteristic of ferns. The root-stock is 

 short with numerous fleshy roots and the stalk rises 

 from six to eighteen inches in height — rarely the latter 

 — and the somewhat triangular blade springs from the 

 common stalk near the base. It is twice pinnate with 

 stalked pinnae and lobed or incised pinnules the low- 

 est pair of pinnae being nearly as large as the rest of 

 the frond. 



The fertile part of the frond is three times pinnate, 

 much taller and quite erect. The pinnules of the 



