

330 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
Munster —Tipperary: Clonmel, J. Sibbald. Kerry: Valentia 
Island, Miss Helen Blackburne. 
Connaught.—Galway : Connemara, near Galway, Lady S. De la 
Poer Trench. 
The Moonwort is reported to occur in various parts of Europe, 
from Iceland, North Cape, Lapland, and the other Scandinavian 
regions, to Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, 
Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia, Croatia, Hungary, Transylvania, and the 
Russo-Caueasian provinces. In Asia it grows in Sikkim and 
Kumaon in the Himalaya, and in Siberia, in the regions of the Ural 
and Altai Mountains and Lake Baikal; extending to Kamtschatka 
and Unalaschka. In North America: in Newfoundland, Green- 
land, Bear Lake, the Saskatchawan, and Rocky Mountains, to 
Behring’s Strait in North West America. It also occurs in Fuegia, 
and in Tasmania; and has been recently met with by Dr. Müller 
on the Australian Alps, in Victoria. B. rutaceum, a native of the 
northern and central parts of Europe, though scarcely to be con- 
sidered as a settled member of our Flora, is not unlikely to be 
so, the Forfarshire plant being apparently the same. The North 
Americo-European B. simplex, is intimately allied both to B. 
Lunaria and B. rutaceum, but is probably distinct. 
No very marked success has been met with in cultivating the 
plants belonging to this genus. Mr. Newman regards them as 
underground parasites, which view is at least doubtful, as the 
plants have been dug out with the utmost care without any trace 
being discovered of adhesion to the roots of surrounding plants. 
The difficulty of growing them, is probably chiefly owing to the 
almost unavoidable fluctuations of moisture to which artificially- 
cultivated plants are subject, and which, judging from the natural 
sites in which the species is found, it is unable to bear. The best 
chances of success seem to be afforded by digging up the plants 
when ripening off, taking along with them sods of the natural soil 
large enough to enclose the roots uninjured, or by taking them at 
the dormant period, the position of the plants having of course been 
previously marked; and then in either case, to plant them in con- 

