CL. XXIV.] 37. BOTRYCHIUM LUNAIIIA. 



451 



L. racemosa) Loh. Hist. 470. Ic. 807. Bolrytis minor^ Clus, 

 Hist % 118. BauK Hist, 3. 710, 711. 



Ruta lunaria, Tabern. 413. 



Osmunda foliis lunatis, Tourn. Inst. 547. 



Osmunda lunaria, Linn. Sp. PI. 1519- Pi- Lapp. n. 389- 

 Fl. Dan. t. 18. f. 1. Sturm, Fl. 1. Eng. Bot. 318. 



Botrvchium lunaria, Sw. Syn. Fit 171. Willd. Sp. PI. 4. 

 61. Schk. Fil. 154. 



Geographical Distribution. 



In the north this plant extends not only to Iceland and 

 Lapland, where it is found in those crevices of rocks which 

 are turned to the sun, but in Western Finnmark, as far as 

 the Island of Masoe, (70° N. Lat.) How far south it ex- 

 tends, I know not exactly, but it grows at Montpellier and in 

 Calabria, but not in Greece. 



As the plant grows and fades so quickly, without leaving a 

 trace behind it, it was formerly believed, that during the in- 

 crease of the moon it sprung up, and that with the waning of 

 of the same it died. Hence the alchemists of the middle ages 

 made use of it in their researches ; (C. Gesncr de hcrbis, quce 

 Lunaria nominantur. Tiguri 1555. 4.) 



III. Musci Frondosi, 

 38. 



Cinclidotus fontiiialioides, Pal. Beauv. 



This beautiful moss grows on stones and wood in our 

 streams and flowing waters. It sends out brown fibres into 

 the mud with which the stones or wood are covered ; and 

 from thence rise several branched stems, from four to six 

 inches long, of the size of a linen thread, and of a green co- 

 lour, and covered from below upwards with leaves. These 

 last-mentioned parts grow close together, Avithout lying like 

 tiles on one another : they half embrace the stem and branches, 

 are oblong-lanceolate, quite entire, a little tapering at the 



F f 2 



