[Illustration:  The Matricary Fern Botrychium ramosum]

The matricary fern differs from the preceding in ripening its spores about a month earlier, in having its sterile frond stalked, besides being a taller and fleshier plant.  It may also be noted that in the lance-leaved species the midveins of the larger lobes are continuous, running to the tip; whereas in the matricary fern the midveins fork repeatedly and are soon indistinguishable from the veinlets.  The two are apt to grow near each other, with the rattlesnake fern as a near neighbor.  June.

NOTE.  In 1897 A.A.  Eaton discovered certain Botrychia in a sphagnum swamp in New Hampshire, to which he gave the specific name of Botrychium tenebrosum.  The plants were very small, not averaging above two or three inches high, with the sterile blade sessile or slightly stalked.  Many botanists prefer to place this fern as a variety of the matricary, but others regard it as a form of Botrychium simplex.  Borders of maple swamps, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York.

(5) COMMON GRAPE FERN

Botrychium obliquum. Botrychium ternatum, var. obliquum

BOTRYCHIUM DISSECTUM, var.  OBLIQUUM

Rootstock short, its base including the buds of succeeding years.  Fronds two to twelve inches or more high.  Leafy or sterile segment triangular, ternate, long-petioled, springing from near the base of the plant, and spreading horizontally.  From the main leafstock grow several pairs of stalked pinnae, with the divisions ovate-oblong, acutish, crenate-serrulate, obliquely cordate or subcordate.  Fertile segment taller, erect, about three times pinnate, maturing its fruit in autumn.  Occasionally two or three fertile spikes grow on the same plant.  In vernation the apex of each segment is bent down with a slight curve inward.

[Illustration:  Common Grape Fern. Botrychium obliquum]

New England to Virginia, westward to Minnesota and southward.

Botrychium obliquum, var. dissectum.  Similar to the type, but with the divisions very finely dissected or incisely many-toothed, the most beautiful of all the grape ferns.  There is considerable variety in the cutting of the fronds.  Maine to Florida and westward.

Botrychium obliquum, var. oneidense.  Ultimate segments oblong, rounded at the apex, crenulate-serrate, less divided than any of the others and, perhaps, less common.  Vermont to Central New York.

Botrychium obliquum, var. elongatum.  Divisions lanceolate, elongated, acute.

[Illustration:  Botrychium obliquum var. oneidense]

Note:  A Botrychium not uncommon in Georgia and Alabama, named by Swartz B. lunarioides, deserves careful study.  It is known as the “Southern Botrychium.”

[Illustration:  Botrychium obliquum, var. dissectum]