166 MARSILEACEA# 
botanist. It usually grows, at first, in a much more erect position than any 
other native species, though, after a time, it becomes in some measure trailing. 
Its fructification, too, differs from that of the others, not being arranged in 
terminal catkin-like spikes, but being produced in the axils of the leaves 
along the upper branches of the stem. The stems are from three to six 
inches in height ; the plant attaining occasionally, in sheltered situations, a 
still greater size. One stem only issues from the root, and this is branched 
two or three times in a forked manner, till it forms a cluster, which is flat 
at the top, and has from six to ten alternate divisions. The branches are 
very tough and rigid, their thickly crowded leaves overlapping each other. 
These little lanceolate leaves are acute and glossy, smooth on the edges, very 
stiff, and of a rich green colour. 
The capsules of fructification are rather large, kidney-shaped, two-valved, 
and filled with pale yellow minute dust-like spores. The plant likewise forms 
buds, and seems chiefly propagated by their means. These curious little 
stalked buds consist of three or four egg-shaped leaves of different sizes, 
placed in the axils of the leaves, chiefly towards the summits of the 
branches. 
Order CIV. MARSILEACEA—PEPPERWORTS. 
These are flowerless plants, bearing capsules without a ring, either 
enclosed within the swollen base of the leaves, or rising from the rootstock 
of the plant, and containing macrospores and microspores attached to thread- 
like receptacles. 
1. QuILLWoRT (Iso¢tes).—Capsules surrounded by the bases of the hollow 
leaves, containing two sorts of spores, some larger than the pollen-like dust 
which accompanies them. Name from isos, equal or alike, and ¢éfos, the year, 
because evergreen. 
2. Prnuwort (Piluldria).—Capsules globular, 2—4-celled, each cell con- 
taining two different kinds of bodies. Name pilula, a little pill, which its 
fructification resembles. 
1. QuILLWoRT (Jsoétes). 
1. European Quillwort, or Merlin’s Grass (J. lacistris).—Leaves 
awl-shaped, bluntly four-sided, with four-jointed tubes. The Quillworts are _ 
aquatic plants, and our only native species of the genus is abundant at the 
bottom of lakes and ponds in some hilly districts. The plant renders such 
a spot very beautiful, as, when seen through the crystal waters, it looks like 
a meadow of the richest green hue, and, as it is perennial, it adorns them at 
all times of the year. It occurs in lakes, reservoirs of water, and on marshes 
and other inundated places in the north of England and Wales, and is 
frequent in some of the Scottish lakes. Mr. Knapp, remarking on the soil 
of the Highlands, says that a considerable portion of it is formed chiefly by 
the granite of rocks, the felspar, quartz, and mica having been disintegrated 
by the elements, and mingled with a little vegetable earth; and that the 
