Part 21

Fertile portion.--Either simple or once or twice-pinnate, taller than the sterile portion.

This little plant is sufficiently rare to rejoice the heart of the fern hunter who is so fortunate as to stumble upon it by chance or to trace it to its chosen haunts.

It is generally considered an inhabitant of moist woods and meadows, though Mr. Pringle describes it as "abundantly scattered over Vermont, its habitat usually poor soil, especially knolls of hill pastures," and Mr. Dodge assigns it to "dry fields." It fruits in May or June.

12. MOONWORT

Botrychium Lunaria

Newfoundland to Connecticut and Central New York, in dry pastures. Three inches to nearly one foot high. A very fleshy plant.

Sterile portion.--Oblong, cut into several fan-shaped fleshy divisions, growing close to the stem about the middle of the plant.

Fertile portion.--Branching, long-stalked, usually the same height as or taller than the sterile portion.

The Moonwort is another of our rare little plants. It grows usually in dry pastures, fruiting in July.

Formerly it was accredited with various magic powers. Gathered by moonlight, it was said to "do wonders." The English poet Drayton refers to the Moonwort as "Lunary":

"Then sprinkled she the juice of rue With nine drops of the midnight dew From Lunary distilling."

MOONWORT

LANCE LEAVED GRAPE FERN]

Gerarde mentions its use by alchemists, who called it Martagon. In the work of Coles, an early writer on plants, we read: "It is said, yea, and believed by many that Moonwort will open the locks wherewith dwelling-houses are made fast, if it be put into the keyhole; as also that it will loosen ... shoes from those horses' feet that go on the places where it grows."

It is to the Moonwort that Withers alludes in the following lines:

"There is an herb, some say, whose vertue's such It in the pasture, only with a touch Unshoes the new-shod steed."

13. MATRICARY GRAPE FERN

Botrychium matricariæfolium

Nova Scotia to New Jersey, in woods and wet meadows. Two inches to one foot high.

Sterile portion.--Once or twice divided, sometimes very fleshy, growing high up on the stem.

Fertile portion.--With several branched pinnæ.

This plant is found, often in the companionship of B. Virginianum, in woods and wet meadows, not farther south than New Jersey. It fruits in summer.

14. LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN

Botrychium lanceolatum

Nova Scotia to New Jersey, in woods and meadows. Two to nine inches high.

Sterile portion.--Triangular, twice-pinnatifid, with somewhat lance-shaped segments, hardly fleshy, set close to the top of the common stalk.

Fertile portion.--Branching.

Like the Matricary Grape Fern, this plant is found in the woods and wet meadows from Nova Scotia to New Jersey. It fruits also in summer.