80 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



[Vol. 9 



Crude as is the description of Linnaeus, it surpassed the earlier 

 accounts. Ray, who provided the earliest account, credited D. 

 Lloyd with finding the material in an alpine lake, and remarked 

 that "of this plant, one sees nought but leaves and roots, and 

 knows not from what source it comes directly." 



Dillenius developed a little greater detail in regard to the 

 structure. He described two plants, similar in their fleshy tubers, 

 but differing in the shorter, coarser, incurved leaves of the one, 

 and the finer, longer, erect leaves of the other. The latter, con- 

 sidered synonymous with /. lacustris L., is described as having 

 "a root harder than a leek, less tuberous, less thick," but other- 

 wise having the same texture of leaf, color, seeds, etc. In the 

 description of the short-leaved form, the channels in the leaf and 



the transverse septa are brought out as they are in the diagrams 

 of the fine-leaved plants. The plants are reported as growing "in 

 great abundance in very long, deep ponds near Llanberry" and 

 in mountain lakes. 



Scarcely more enlightening is the account of the next species 

 of Isoetes to be recorded. In 1781, /. cowman dclina, similar to 

 /. lacustris L., but larger, was reported by Linnaeus fil. as growing 

 in wet places, submerged in the rainy season, in CoromandeL 

 Attention in the description is chiefly drawn to the filiform, erect, 

 glabrous character of the leaves and the broadened membrana- 

 ceous leaf-bases which form the bulbous portion of the plant. 



The first detailed account of the development of Isoetes occurs 

 in connection with the description of a third species, /. setacea, 

 by Delile 1 in 1827. He carefully observed the life-history through 



the seasons, and as a result laid a better morphological basis than 

 his predecessors. A comparison is made with Lycopodiura but 

 the author decides that Isoetes resembles the lily or J uncus more 

 in its embryo characters. However, the genus is finally placed 

 between Mar site a and Ly 'cop odium, with interpretations of all 

 structures made on the basis of seed-plants. 



The following year H. G. L. Reichenbach published the first 

 account in which the family name for Isoetes is used, here as 

 Isoeteae. This, or similar forms, as Isoetineae, is used by all 



the subsequent workers cited up to the paper of Underwood, 

 where the modern Isoetaceae is used for the first time. There 

 is a good deal of confusion in the references given by some of 



delile, A. I\. Exnmen do la vegetation de \ } [soetes setacea et exposition de 

 sea caractferes. Mus. Paris Mom. 14: 110-119. pi 6-7. 1827. 



