1030 MARSILEACES. [Pilularia. 
Orper XCIV. MARSILEACESA. 
Perennial plants, usually of small size, growing in marshes or 
in damp soil. Rhizome slender, creeping, rooting at the nodes. 
Leaves solitary or in tufts at the nodes of the rhizome, either fili- 
form or of 4 leaflets borne at the top of a slender petiole. Sporo- 
carps or conceptacles globose or oblong, on short peduncles which 
rise from the petioles or near their bases, each sporocarp containing 
numerous (Marsilea) or few (Pilularia) cavities or cells, and each 
cell containing a group or sorus composed of macrosporangia and 
microsporangia. Macrosporangia containing a single macrospore ; 
microsporangia containing numerous microspores. 
A small order of 2 genera and 50 or 60 species, found in most temperate and 
tropical countries. In germination a small female prothallium is developed 
within the macrospore, which eventually bursts, the prothallium protruding 
from the opening. A single archegonium is then formed on the prothallium, 
which is fertilised by spermatozoids set free by the bursting of the microspores, 
within which a rudimentary male prothallium bearing a single antheridium has 
been developed. 
1. PILULARIA, Linn. 
Rhizome long, filiform, creeping and rooting. Leaves solitary 
at the nodes of the rhizome, circinate in vernation, filiform, erect. 
Sporocarps on short peduncles, globose, 2-4-celled, splitting at the 
top into as many valves as cells; each cell with a longitudinal 
parietal placenta bearing in the upper portion microsporangia con- 
taining numerous microspores, and below these few or many macro- 
sporangia containing a solitary macrospore. 
A small genus of 6 species, found in the temperate or subtropical regions of 
both hemispheres. The New Zealand species is endemic. 
1. P. novee-zealandie, 7’. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. (1877) 
547, t. 29.—Very slender. Leaves distant, 3-2in. long. Peduncle 
about +in. long, erect. Sporocarp din. diam., globose, densely 
hairy, 2-celled and 2-valved. Macrosporangia 10-12 to each cell, 
subglobose, not constricted at the middle.—Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 100; 
Bak. Fern Alltes, 148. 
Norru Is~tanp : Auckland—Lake Whangape, Kirk. Sourn Istanp: Can- 
terbury — Lake Lyndon, Lake Pearson, and other lakes in the Waimakariri 
district, Kirk! Hnys! Berggren, T. F. C. 
Probably not an uncommon plant, but very easily overlooked. 
Orper XCV. SALVINIACE:. 
Fugacious annuals, of small size, floating in quiet waters. 
Stems simple or branched. Leaves small, often minute, apparently 
distichous, sessile or shortly petiolate, simple or lobed. Sporo- 
carps or conceptacles on the under-surface of the stem, either clus- 
