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.