Botrychium.\ 
FERNS. 
69 
A, fertile branched spike of fruit of Botrychium Lunaria. 13, part of ditto 
enlarged. C, ditto with the thecae opened. D, spores. E, transverse section 
of the leaf -stalk. 
Die fruit in this somewhat extensive genus is produced upon a compound spike 
formed from one of the two principal branches into which the leafstalk divides. 
The theca are opaque and sessile. Only one British species has been recorded 
until lately, but there are two forms regarded as distinct on the continent. (See 
Introduction.) 
BOTRYCHIUM LUNARIA. 
COMMON MO ON WORT. 
(Plate VII, fig. 2.) 
Cha. — Fertile division of the leaf pinnate, solitary. Pinnae fan- 
shaped, erenate. 
Syn. — Botrychium Lunaria, Swz., Willd., Hook., Mack., Smith in E. Ft., Gray. 
— Osmunda Lunaria, Linn., Smith in FI. Br. and E. B., Bolt., Lam., Dicks., 
Ehrh. — Osmunda lunata, Salisb . — Lunaria minor, Ger., Fay, Matth., 
Camer., Fuchs., Gesner, 8fc. 
Fig. — E. B. 318. — Bolt. 4. — Flo. Dan. 18,/'. 1. — Flo. Lon. 60. — Newm. p. 100. 
Des. — Rootstock a kind of slender tap-root, giving off thick, 
smooth, yellow radical fibres. Leaf of a dull yellowish-green, 
2 to 6 inches high, rarely more than one from a root, quite 
smooth in every part. Leaf-stalk hollow, rather succulent, half 
way up it divides into two branches, one being a pinnatifid or pinnate 
leaf, the other the fruit-spike. Pinnules of the leafy part five 
or six pairs, opposite, decurrent, fan-shaped, regularly erenate. 
Fruit covering the upper part of the other branch of the stalk in a 
compound spike, not in aggregate clusters, as in Osmunda, but 
separate, though nearly touching each other, and arranged in single 
lines along the branches of the spike. The thecae are opaque, 
sessile, round, smooth, yellow at first, afterwards brown. Spores 
oval, smooth, generally attached to each other in pairs. 
Vi it. — Its virtues are more imaginary than real, more magical than physical. 
Its name Lunaria, or Moonwort, is taken from the shape of the leaves, and 
gathered by the light of the moon, was said to “ doo wonders.” Gerard mentions 
a remarkable instance of the properties attributed to it by the alchemists and 
witches, “that it will loose locks, and make thorn fall from the feet of horses that 
do grase where it doth grow “ too drowsie a dream” for even the credulous 
Gerard to believe ; but he adds, that it is “ singular for wounds.” 
[B. Lunaria S, Smith (Botrychium rutaceum, £««.), has the barren division of the 
leaf pinnatipartite, with the partitions pinnatifid. When the pinnae of B. Lunaria 
are divided it is usually upon the fan-shaped plan of the venation. It has been 
found in Westmoreland and near Dundee, and probably has been overlooked. 
(Fig. Newm. 1854, p. 322.)] 
Sit. — In pastures chiefly in the northern and mountainous countries. 
