[Illustration: Little Grape Fern Botrychium simplex]
[Illustration: Lance-leaved Grape Fern Botrychium lanceolatum Botrychium angustisegmentum]
[(4) MATRICARY FERN]
Botrychium ramòsum. Botrychium matricariæfòlium
Fronds small, one to twelve inches high. Sterile segment above the middle, usually much divided. Fertile segment twice or thrice pinnate. Apex of both segments turned down in the bud, the sterile overtopping and clasping the fertile one.
[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 tenebròsum. 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 símplex. Borders of maple swamps, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York.