THE COMMON MOONWORT. 
JBotrt/chium Limaria.* — Swartz. 
The Common Moonwort (a BotricKiwm , of the 
order Ophioglossace^i, distinguished from all the 
Polypodiacess or True Perns, by their young fronds 
being not cireinate, but folded straightly, though at 
the same time resembling the Osmundineae in having 
no elastic ring and in being two-valved) is one step 
farther in the course of natural variety, for, as through 
Polypodiaceaa and Trichomanineae there is one regular 
progression and change of method of fructification 
from the spore-cases without indnsium 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 
distinguished from the stalk of a veritable flowering 
plant. 
* Osmunda Lunaria (Limbus), Ophioglossum pennatum, &o. 
