The moonwort known as “the white herb of the mountain” or Boytrychium 
lunaria is an extremely rare little succulent fern Maria Hebrea identified 
as the Philosopher’s Stone, the legendary substance capable of transforming

base metals like copper and lead into silver and gold and more important, of

rejuvenating, perfecting, and extending human life.

As a fern, Botrychium is a seedless vascular plant that reproduces by 
shedding its spores in the air. In THE DEADLIEST SPORT, the third book in the

Miriam bat Isaac Mystery Series, Miriam has considerable success isolating the

essential ingredient from a sample gathered by moonlight in an open field

in Anatolia.