THE COMMON MOONWORT. 
TZotrychivm Lunaria.* — Swartz. 
The Common Moonwort (a Botrychium, of the 
order Ophioglossace.®, distinguished from all the 
Polypodiace® or True Perns, by their young fronds 
being not circinate, but folded straightly, though at 
the same time resembling the Osmundinese in having 
no elastic ring and in being two-valved) is one step 
farther in the course of natural variety, for, as through 
Polypodiaceae and Trichomanineas there is one regular 
progression and change of method of fructification 
from the spore-cases without indusium to the spore- 
cases with indusium, from the simplest forms of 
indusia to the flask or bladder shapes, from the spore- 
cases on the backs to the spore-cases on the margins, 
and the spore-cases (as in Osmunda ) on the ends of 
fronds transformed into seeming stalks, so the Ophio- 
glossaceae show yet one more change, the change into 
the appearance of a distinct flower-stalk being yet 
more marked, so much so as to be not at first sight 
distinguishable from the stalk of a veritable flowering 
plant. 
* Osmunda Lunaria ( Linnceus ), Ophioglossum pennatum, &c. 
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