94 FILICES. { Botrychium. 
pinnate or 2-3-pinnate or decompound; the anterior fertile, of numerous 
branched spikes forming a pedunculate panicle, the peduncle usually long, 
inserted on the petiole below the sterile lamina. Sporangia closely packed 
and sessile in two rows along the branches of the panicle, free, globose, not 
annulate, dehiscing by a transverse slit ; spores numerous, tetrahedral. 
Species variously estimated at from 10 to 30, according to the different views of 
authors. ound in most temperate or extratropical regions, rare in very hot climates. 
Both the New Zealand species are widely distributed. 
Sterile segment of the frond simply pinnate ; fertile bipinnate .. 1. B. lunaria. 
Sterile and fertile segments both decompound st nh .. 2. B. australe. 
1. B. lunaria Swartz Syn. Fil. (1806) 110—Rhizome short, tuberous. 
Fronds solitary at the top of the rhizome or rarely 2 together, 3-6 in. 
high ; stipes stout, terete, glabrous, with 1 or 2 brownish sheathing scales 
at the base. Sterile lamina at about the middle of the frond, #—3 in. long, 
4-1 in. broad, oblong or linear-oblong, rather fleshy, simply pinnate ; pinnae 
3-6 pairs, close-set, lunate or flabellate, entire or more or less deeply crenate- 
toothed. Veins flabellate, radiating from the base. Fertile segment equal- 
ling or exceeding the sterile, pedunculate, 4-3 in. long, lanceolate-deltoid, 
2-pinnate ; the divisions all turned to one side, narrow, thickly covered 
with the yellowish sporangia.—Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii (1860) 154; Hook. and 
Bak. Syn. Fil. (1873) 447; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii (1878) 690; Hnys on 
Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi (1884) 363; 7. Kirk Lc. 366; Field N.Z. Ferns 
(1890) 166, t. 21, f.8; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 1028. 
Sours Istanp: Canterbury—South-western slopes of Mount Torlesse, alt. 2700 it., 
J. D. Enys ! 
Not uncommon in the temperate and cool mountainous portions of the Northern 
Hemisphere, and in Patagonia and Australia in the Southern. The few New Zealand 
specimens that I have seen are much under the average size of the species in Europe 
or North America, but I can see no other difference. 
2. B. australe Rk. Br. Prodr. (1810) 164.—Rhizome short, stout, emitting 
numerous long and fleshy almost tuberous roots. Fronds solitary, 6-18 in. 
long or more. Stipes 1-3in. long from the rhizome to the forking of the 
sterile and fertile segments, stout, thick and fleshy, terete. Sterile segment 
long-peduncled, variable in size, usually from 3-6in. broad and long, but 
large specimens sometimes reach 9-12 in., and small ones are often dwarfed 
to less than 2 in., broadly deltoid, tripartite at the base, the divisions usually 
petiolate, 2-4-pinnate ; the ultimate pinnules oblong or ovate, toothed or 
crenate or almost entire; texture thick and fleshy. J ertile segment on a 
stout or slender peduncle 4-12in. long or more, usually overtopping the 
sterile segment ; panicle 14-6 in. long, nearly as broad at the base, much 
branched, 3-4-pinnate. Sporangia very numerous.— A. Cunn. Precur. 
(1836) n. 160; Raoul Chow (1846) 37; Prantl Syst. Ophrogl. (1883) 340. 
B, ternatum Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fal. (1873) 448; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii 
(1878) 690; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns (1882) 99; Field N.Z. Ferns (1890) 157, 
t. 20, f. 5, 5a; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 1029 (not of Thunb.). 
B. virginianum Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii (1855) 50 (not of Swartz). 
B, cicutarium Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 387 (not of Swartz). 
