168 MARSILEACEAA—PEPPERWORTS 
cattle when placed within their reach, and is believed to be very nutritious — 
food for them. 
2. Porcupine Quillwort (J. hystriz).—Leaves thread-like, the tubes 
obscure, and the sheath quite enveloping the capsule. This is a much 
smaller plant than the common species, and instead of growing at the bottom 
of lakes, this is found on moist sandy soil that is subject to occasional inunda- 
tion. It gets its name from the fact that the corm is clothed with the horny 
prickly bases of the old leaves. The slender leaves are erect only for about 
two-thirds of their length, then they curve over outwardly. The macro- 
spores, which are white, are studded with blunt tubercles. So far the only 
locality recorded for this plant in the British Isles is in Guernsey, where it 
was found in 1860 by Mr. George Wolsey, to whom we are also indebted for 
the discovery of the lesser adder’s-tongue. It fruits in May and June. 
Also known as I. dwricz. 
2. PILLWoRT (Pilularia) 
Creeping Pillwort or Pepper-grass (P. globulifera).—Leaves thread- 
like ; stem creeping; capsules slightly stalked, roundish, and hairy. This 
plant winds along the grass of wet meadows, or in the mud at the margins 
of lakes or pools, making little show on the moist lands when inundated with 
the winter’s rains, but lying during summer more or less exposed to view. 
It is, however, easily.overlooked, and was long unnoticed by several of our 
most eminent botanists, though it grew in abundance in the neighbourhood 
in which they resided. The Rev. W. T. Bree found it at Coleshill Pool, in 
Warwickshire, in so great plenty, that he says he has seen it covering the 
shore to a great extent; yet Mr. Purton remarked, some years since: ‘This 
must be the rarest of our indigenous plants, as it is not mentioned in the 
Cambridge, Oxford, or Bedford Floras; nor is it noticed as a Warwickshire 
plant in that accurate and laborious work, Dr. Withering’s ‘ Arrangement.’ ” 
It is now known to be not uncommon. It grows on the marshes near Pen- 
zance, in Cornwall; about Polwhele, Devonshire ; at Maiden Down, in 
Somersetshire ; near Warminster, in Wiltshire; on Esher Common, and at 
Roehampton, Surrey, and a large number of well-known localities—being 
distributed here and there over most parts of the kingdom. In Ireland it 
is found but rarely in the west and north-east. It is familiar to botanists 
throughout the greater part of Europe. In France it is La Pilulaire, in 
Germany Pillenfarrn, whilst it is the Pillenkruid of the Dutch. 
This plant is never found in deep water, but forms verdant masses on 
places occasionally overflowed. Its long entangled stem is hollow, and not 
larger than a stout thread ; and its younger portion is invested with small 
scale-like hairs. It is occasionally branched ; and issuing from it, at intervals 
of half an inch or more, are small tufts of slender roots, which descend into 
the soft soil. Three or four fibres are in each tuft, and immediately above 
each set of fibres rises, from the upper part of the stem, a tuft of from two 
to six thread-like leaves. These leaves are hollow, bristle-like, about two 
inches long, and bright green. They are divided into cells, and, when young, 
are rolled up like the leafy ferns: they unroll gradually, at first hanging 
down like a shepherd’s crook, but by degrees they become erect. 
