44 SELAGINELLACEAE. 
Family 10. SELAGINELLACEAE Underw. Native Ferns 103. 188r. 
Terrestrial, annual or perennial, moss-like plants with branching stems and 
scale-like leaves, which are many-ranked and uniform, or 4-ranked and of two 
types spreading in two planes. Sporanges 1-celled, solitary in the axils of 
leaves which are so arranged as to form more or less quadrangular spikes, some 
containing 4 macrospores (macrosporanges), others containing numerous mi- 
crospores (microsporanges), which develop into small prothallia, those from 
the macrospores bearing archegones, those from the microspores antherids. 
The family consists of the following genus : 
1. SELAGINELLA Beauv. Prodr. Aetheog. ror. 1805. 
Characters of family. [Name diminutive of Selago, an ancient name of some Lycopodium. | 
About 335 species of very wide geographic distribution, most abundant and largest in tropical 
regions. In addition to the following some 5 others occur in western North America. 
Stem-leaves all alike, many-ranked. 
Stems compact with rigid leaves; spikes quadrangular. 1. S. rupestris. 
Stems slender; leaves lax, spreading; spikes enlarged, scarcely quadrangular. 2. .S. selaginotdes. 
Stem-leaves of 2 kinds, 4-ranked, spreading in 2 planes. 3. S. apus. 
1. Selaginella rupéstris (I. ) Spring. 
Rock Selaginella. (Fig. 99.) 
Lycopodium rupestre i, Sp. Pl. 1101. 1753. 
Selaginella rupestris Spring in Mart. Fl. Bras. 
1: Part 2,118. 1840. 
Stems densely tufted, with occasional 
sterile runners and sub-pinnate branches, 
1’-3/ high, commonly curved when dry. 
Leaves rigid, appressed-imbricated, 1/’ or 
less long, linear or linear-lanceolate, convex 
on the back,more or less ciliate, many-ranked, 
tipped with a distinct transparent awn; 
spikes sessile at the ends of the stem or 
branches, strongly quadrangular, 6//—12/’ 
long, about 1/’ thick; bracts ovate-lanceo- 
late, acute or acuminate, broader than the 
leaves of the stem ; macrosporanges and mic- 
rosporanges borne in the same spikes, the 
former more abundant. 
On dry rocks, throughout the northern hem- 
isphere, and in Africa. Ascends to at least 
2000 ft. in Virginia. Aug.—Oct. 
2. Selaginella selaginoides (L.) 
Link. Low Selaginella. (Fig. 100. ) 
Lycopodium selaginoides I. Sp. Pl. 1101. 175; 
Selaginella spinosa Beauv. Prodr. Aetheog. 1 
1805. 
Selaginella selaginoides Vink, Fil. Hort. Berol. 
158. 1841. 
Sterile branches prostrate-creeping, slen- 
der, 14’-2/ long, the fertile erect or ascend- 
ing, thicker, 1/-3’ high, simple; leaves 
lanceolate, acute, lax and spreading, sparsely 
spinulose-ciliate, 1/’-2’’ long ; spikes solitary 
at the ends of the fertile branches, enlarged, 
oblong-linear, subacute, 1’ or less long, 
2//-214’’ thick ; bracts of the spike lax, as- 
cending, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 
strongly ciliate. 
On wet rocks, Labrador to Alaska, south to 
New Hampshire, Michigan and Colorado, Also 
in northern Europe and Asia. Summer. 
