﻿126 Underwood : Selagixella rupestris and its Allies 



i. Selagixella rupestris (L.) Spring. 



It may be something of a surprise to many to learn that the 

 original or type locality of this somewhat widely distributed species 

 is in the eastern United States, and it is here where it appears to 

 be subject to comparatively slight variation. Since the original 

 Lycopodium rupestre of Linnaeus had a distribution extending to 

 Siberia, it is possible that this species, like many others, was a com- 

 posite, but as Linnaeus after his usual brief diagnosis cited the ex- 

 cellent figure of Dillenius,* which the latter had characterized as 

 the sharp square-spiked rock lycopod from Virginia and Pennsyl- 

 vania, it is clear that whatever the status of the Asiatic plant, the 

 plant of the eastern United States must bear the specific name as- 

 signed to it by Linnaeus. 



Spring in his revision of the species f recognized two extremely 

 generalized varieties neither of which clearly represents any plant 

 in particular. His var. a borealis included the more rigid con- 

 tracted forms which he attributed to the northern regions of Asia 

 and America, while his var. $ tropica included the more slender 

 elongate forms from warmer latitudes. It is interesting to note m 

 this connection that the most elongate member of the group, at- 

 taining, according to Professor D. C. Eaton, % a length of six feet, is 

 found on the Pacific coast from Oregon to southern Alaska. 



Milde§ distinguishes ten varieties, but as only one of them was 

 American, and that from Mexico, his arrangement does not specially 

 concern us at this time. 



Baker still later || united all the forms under a single species 

 with a note in which he mentions S. tortipila as " a dwarf form ' 

 and cites two herbarium names of Nuttall. Singularly enough he 

 recognizes 5. Oregana D. C. Eaton as distinct, although the speci- 

 mens of that species at Kew are all mixed up with the various 

 forms of S, rupestris, often on the same sheets, and the cover for 

 5. Oregana appears to be vacant. But this unceremonious mass- 

 in of widely different species under the same cover is not un- 

 common in the Kew collection. 



* Historic Muscoram, //. 6j. f. //. 



t Monographic de la Famille des Lycopod Lice es, seconde partie, 57. 1848 



JBot. Cal. 2: 350. 1 So. 



I I il. Europ. et Atlant, 262, 263. 1867. 

 || Handbook of Fern Allies, 35. 1S87. 



