Page:Parsons How to Know the Ferns 7th ed.djvu/112

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GROUP II

FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE,
FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND

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.


{{c|14. LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN

{{smaller block

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.

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