THE MOONWORT 



By Adella Prescott. 



TT is one of the delightful things about going" a-ferning that 

 while you may fail to find the special thing you are 

 looking for, you often find something better. It was when I 

 was looking for the adder's-tongue that I found the moon- 

 wort. I was A^siting in the northern part of Oneida County, 

 N. Y., late in June, and the young son of my hostess was 

 anxious to have me visit a nearby ravine where he said ''all 

 kinds" of ferns grew. From his description I anticipated 

 finding only the common ferns and we did find them in won- 

 derful luxuriance and great variety — many of the wood ferns, 

 all of the osmundas, the tall spleenworts, dicksonia and others, 

 but it was when crossing the mossy old pasture at one side 

 of the ravine that I made my great discovery, a discovery that 

 seemed to my youthful guide quite out of proportion to the 

 excitement it produced, for even the most enthusiastic botanist 

 would hardly call the moonwort beautiful. 



The field seemed to me a likely place to look for the 

 adder's-tongue and, stooping to scan the ground more care- 

 fully, lo, at my very feet, was a tiny moonwort. It was very 

 small and somewhat imperfect owing to late and heaAw frosts, 

 but I had read its description and studied its outlines too often 

 to be deceived and a further search disclosed several more. 

 Most of them were very small and few were perfect, but a 

 few were five or six inches in height with a well developed 

 fertile division, some of them having a few^ sori on the sterile 

 division as well. 



The moonwort ( Bofrychiiini lunaria) is a northern spe- 

 cies and is not found south of Xew York and Connecticut. 



