168 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM, 
5. Selaginella acanthonota Underw. Torreya 2: 172. 1902. 
PLATE 20. Figure 67. 
Selaginella rupestris acanthonota Clute, Fern Allies 142, 264. 1905. 
Plants cespitose, ascending, up to 5 cm. high; rhizophores abundant through- 
out; stems (including leaves) up to 2 mm. thick, somewhat rigid, densely re- 
peatedly branched at intervals of 3 to 7 mm.; primary branches 3 to 5 em. 
long, similar to shoots; ultimate branchlets up to 7 mm. long, simple, closely 
ascending; leaves 8 to 10-ranked, imbricate slightly over half their length, 
appressed, in the younger stages pale green, in age becoming reddish brown, 
thickish, chartaceous, flat above, slightly convex beneath, suleate dorsally in 
a median line up to the apex, 8 to 12-ciliate on the margins, 4 to 8-ciliate along 
the edges of the dorsal suture, narrowly deltoid from a short obdeltoid base; 
longest leaves 1.6 mm. long, 0.4 mm. wide at the base; cilia 0.042 to 0.051 mm. 
long; set deciduous, up to 1 mm, long, 0.034 to 0.068 mm. thick, white with 
reddish base, minutely spinulose. 
Fig. 67.—Details of Sclaginella acanthonota. a, Dorsal view of leaf; b, ventral view; 
e, dorsal view of sporophyll; d, ventral view; e, commissural face of megaspore; 
f, outer face. From the type specimen. Scale 30. 
Spikes terminal, quadrangular, up to 8 cm. long, 1.5 to 2 mm. thick; sporo- 
phylls up to 2 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide at the base, deltoid, 20 to 25-ciliate on 
the margins, minutely 10 to 15-ciliate on the edges of the dorsal suture: set# 
about two-thirds as long as those of stem leaves; cilia much more minute. 
Megasporangia pale yellow, 0.6 mm. in widest diameter; megaspores white, 
0.28 mm. in diameter, tuberculate-rugose on the commissural side, nearly 
smooth on the opposite side; microsporangia 0.5 mm. in diameter, reniform, 
pale orange; microspores pale orange, 0.05 mm. in diameter. 
The type, in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden, was col- 
lected by C. L. Williamson in pine barrens near Wilmington, North Caro- 
lina, July, 1892. 
