5 
O S M U N D A. 
OS'MUND, or Osmund Royal,/ A plant fometinies 
ufed in medicine. It grows upon bogs in divers parts of 
England. See Osmunda. 
OSMUN'DA, f. [a word of which no explanation has 
ever been given, and which Linnaeus, in his Philofophia 
Botanica, mentions as one of thofe which can hardly be 
traced to any language. But OJ’rnund is a Saxon proper 
name for a man, and exprefles “ domeftic peace.” Its 
application to the plant is found to have originated in 
England. The elegant Filix florida, or flowering fern, 
■which firft received it, and which is an aquatic plant, 
fliould feem, by Gerard’s Herbal, a type or memorial of 
fome “ Qfmund, a water-man,” whole hiftory had not 
come down, even to that old writer, but “ whofe heart 
(he fays) was commemorated in the core of the root.”] 
In botany, a genus of theclafs cryptogamia, order Alices, 
natural order of Alices, or ferns. Eflential generic cha¬ 
racters—Capfules diftinft, difpofed in a raceme in fuch 
a manner as to look the fame way, or elfe heaped on the 
back of the pinna, or divifion of the frond, feflile, fub- 
globular, opening tranfverlely, without any ring. Seeds 
very many, extremely minute. 
Some of the fpecies (as ftruthiopteris, fpicant, and 
crifpa) do not belong to this genus, having the elaftic 
ring common to the dorflferous ferns, or ferns properly 
fo called. O. fpicant is referred to Blechnum by fome, to 
Acroftichum by others, to Struthiopteris by Haller, Sco- 
poli, and Weis. O. crifpa is referred to Pteris; Villars 
makes it an Acroftichum ; old authors, in general, name 
it an Adiantum. “ Till the genera of ferns are better 
arranged, (fays Mr. Profeftor Martyn,) I have left the 
twenty-feven fpecies as I And them in the 14-th edition of 
S} ftema Vegetabilium i though there is no doubt of the 
fpecies named above being effentially different from the 
genuine Ofmundas.” 
1. Ofmunda Zeylanica : fcape cauline, folitary ; fronds 
verticillate, lanceolate, undivided. Plant a foot high, 
with a naked ftem, terminated commonly by feven pe- 
tioled undivided lanceolate leaves, placed in a ring, and 
ereCI; among them rifes a cylindrical peduncled lpike. 
Native of Ceylon and Amboyna. 
2. Ofmunda lunaria, or moon-wort: fcape cauline, fo¬ 
litary ; frond pinnate, folitary. Root ftbrous. Plant 
three, four, or five, inches high ; fometimes a little higher. 
The ftem divides in the middle into two branches, one of 
which immediately puts forth leaflets on each fide; the 
other fupports a naked flowering raceme. Pinnas of the 
frond flefhy, crefcent-fhaped, fenti-circular, and halbert- 
fliaped, irregularly fcolloped, from three to eight pairs, 
with an odd one. Spike, or rather panicle, from one to 
tw o inches long. The branches lean one way ; two rows 
of globular capfules are affixed to them, green at flrft, 
but yellow when ripe, and burfting vertically from the 
top to the bafe ; thefe capfules are divided by an annular 
zone, and contain numerous oval duft-like feeds. 
Linnaeus obferves, that, within the bafe of the ftem, 
early in the fpring, we may And a complete rudiment of 
the next year’s plant. Woodward remarks, that moon- 
wort fo exactly refembles Ophiogloffum vulgatum in ha¬ 
bit and ftrubture, that they ought by no means to be fe- 
parated. 
The difficulty, fays Mor.f. Villars, of meeting with this 
plant, which is not common, and lies concealed among 
grafs, the Angularity of its leaves, and the fuperftitious 
reveries of Matthiolus, who has attributed fupernatural 
virtues to it, all confpire to make it fought after by phi- 
lofophers, herbarifts, and thofe who hunt after wonderful 
fecrets and the philofopher’s ftone. After all, it is merely 
vulnerary, aftringent, and a little mucilaginous. Nativeof 
moft parts of Europe, in dry paftures; flowering from 
May to July. With us, near Linton and Chippenham, 
in Cambridgefhire; Colchefter in Eflex; Bury in Suffolk; 
Stratton-heath in Norfolk; Shotoyer-hill, and North- 
Leigh-heath, in Oxfordffiire ; Scadbury-park, Maidftone, 
Blackheath, and Chiflelhurft-common, in Kent; north 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1219. 
Ade of Bredon-hill, and near Stourbridge, in Worcefter- 
fliire; near Bath in Somerfetfhire; Nottinghamfhire ; Lan- 
cafhire; near Settle and Ingleton, in Yorkfhire; in moun¬ 
tainous paftures of Weftmoreland ; in Scotland, on Ard- 
gath-hill, to the north of Linlithgow ; near Dundonald’s, 
two miles from Little Loch Broom, on the weftern coaft 
of Rofsfhire; in the Ifle of Skye, &c. In Ireland, on the 
riftng ground of a meadow, two hundred yards north of 
the fecond Lock of Lagan-canal; found by Mr. John Tem¬ 
pleton, of Orange-grove, near Belfaft. 
There are feveral varieties of this curious little plant, 
with many leaves and fpikes, and with the leaves cloven. 
3. Ofmunda Virginica : fcape cauline, folitary ; frond 
fuper-decompound. Native of North America. 
4. Ofmunda ternata: fcape cauline, folitary; frond 
three-parted, fuper-decompound. Root compofed of nu¬ 
merous Aliform fibres in bundles, with few Abrils. Stipe 
Ample at bottom, an inch high, and then dividing into a 
frond and a. floriferous fcape. Scape from the bale of the 
petiole roundifh, ftriated, ereft, naked, fmooth, twice as 
long as the frond, drooping and flowering at top. Native 
of Japan, about Nagafaki; flowering in October and No¬ 
vember. 
5. Ofmunda phyllitidis : fcapes cauline, in pairs; frond 
pinnate; ftem even. Native of South America. 
6. Ofmunda hirta : fcapes cauline, in pairs; frcnd pin¬ 
nate; ftem rough-haired. Root a bundle of final 1 fibres. 
Stems Ax or feven, a foot high, brittle, green, with brown 
hairs. On the upper part of thefe .are two oppofite fronds, 
an inch and a half long, and half an inch wide, mucro- 
nate, toothed on the edge, green and fmooth on the upper 
furface, but loaded with white hairs on the under. From 
the bafe of the fronds arife two fcapes, half a foot long, 
flender, covered with a Alky lanugo, and terminated by 
ereft pyramidal racemes, two inches long. Found by 
Plunder in the illand of Martinico. 
7. Ofmunda hirfuta : fcapes cauline, in pairs; frond 
bipinnate, hirlute. This rifes a foot or more, and is higher 
than the next fpecies. In its higher fpikes, which are 
double, it exaftly agrees with it; but the pinnules are 
longer, narrower, not cut quite into the midrib, and of 
a paler-green colour, fomething, in their divifions, like 
the leaves of Matricaria. Native of Jamaica. 
8. Ofmunda adiantifolia: fcapes cauline, in pairs; 
frond fuper-decompound. This is fometimes about a 
foot, but moftly fix or feven inches, high, having a very- 
flender green ltalk, at firft coming out of the earth of a 
dark colour. At about four inches from the ground, out 
of one fide of the ftalk arifes one branch, on which twigs 
are fet alternately, having feveral broad irregularly-figured 
roundifh pinnules, fometimes deeply cut, at other times 
a little indented on the edges, of a pale-green colour, like 
Adiantum album, and having many furrows appearing 
radiated. From the axil of this branch rife two round 
fmall green ftalks, two inches long, towards the tops of 
which are feveral fmall bunches of capfules, at firft green, 
afterwards ferruginous. The root is covered with blackifh 
hair, having feveral fibrils. Native of Jamaica, by the 
banks of Rio Cobre. 
9. Ofmunda verticillata : fcapes radicate; racemes ver¬ 
ticillate ; frond fuper-decompound. 10. Ofmunda cer- 
vina : fcape radicate; frond pinnate; pinnas quite en¬ 
tire. 11. Ofmunda bipinnata : fcape radicate; frond pin¬ 
nate ; pinnas pinnatifid. Found in South America by 
Plunder. 
12. Ofmunda peltata : fhoot creeping; fruStifications 
pedate, diftinft, roundifh-halved, entire; fronds dicho¬ 
tomous, with linear fegments. This is a native of Ja¬ 
maica, where it was found by Swartz. According to the 
Prefident of the Linnsean Society, it is a fpecies of Acrof¬ 
tichum. 
13. Ofmunda aurita : fcapes radicate ; fronds bipinnate 
at bottom; pinnate at top; pinnas at the bafe eared up¬ 
wards, ferrate, convex, finning. Nativeof Jamaica, where 
it was found by Swartz. 
C 
14. Ofmunda 
