MOONWORT. 
345 
the full moon, or half their powers would be lost. In the 
present day such fancies are entirely confined to works of the 
imagination. 
Then rapidly, with foot as light 
As the young musk roe’s, out she flew. 
To cull each shining leaf that grew 
Beneath the moonlight^ hallowing beams. 
Again — ■ 
And the white moon-flower., as it shows 
On Serendib’s high crags, &c. 
Gerarde says it “ is singular to heale green and fresh wounds : 
* ^ * it hath been vsed among the Alchymists and witches 
to doe wonders withall, who say that it will loose lockes, and 
make them to fall from the feet of horses that grase where it 
doth grow, and hath been called of them Martagon ; whereas in 
truth they are all but drowsie dreames and illusions ; but it is 
singular for wounds as aforesaid.” * Both Gerarde and Rayf 
speak of its virtues as a remedy for dysentery. 
The roots and rhizoma of Botrychium difier essentially from 
those of true ferns ; the root is stout, succulent and brittle ; the 
rhizoma appears to be nothing more than the base of the stem, 
scarcely distinguishable by any increase of substance : a single 
main root descends perpendicularly, and other roots issue from 
this at right angles, principally at two points, but without any 
positive uniformity in this respect. 
Before the plant has felt the influence of spring, the frond ex- 
ists in a quiescent state, but perfectly formed ; it appears like a 
simple stem, scarcely an inch in length, and perfectly erect ; on 
a closer inspection the component parts of the future frond will 
be clearly perceived ; the lower portion or rachis is considerably 
stouter than the upper part, the two portions of which face each 
other, the seed or fertile portion of the frond being clasped by 
the barren or leafy part ; and, the fructification being thus en- 
* Ger. Era. 407. 
f Ex Lunaria Walli imguentura conficiunt, quod regioni reniim illitimi 
hahetur inter certissiraa dysenteriaa reraedia; D. Needham. — Syii. 129. 
