THE CLUB-MOSSES 169 



becomes more complete, and several interesting 

 species are known. The name Selaginellites has 

 been given to the fossil forms, but some of them 

 can scarcely be distinguished from the living 

 genus. In the Coal Measure species S. primcevus, 

 which hi foliage seems to have combined the 

 characters of different recent forms, definite cones 

 are present in which the sporangia are pre- 

 served. The interesting point is that there were 

 four megaspores in each sporangium, exactly as hi 

 the living Selaginellas; the plant as a whole might 

 perfectly well belong to that genus, the type thus 

 showing a remarkable persistency from the Palaeo- 

 zoic period to the present time. Other species of 

 Selaginellites were more peculiar: /S. Suissei, from 

 the Upper Coal Measures of France, had a forked 

 stem, with foiir rows of leaves of two sizes, like so 

 many of the recent species. The cones reached a 

 length of six inches; the sporangia of the upper 

 part contained numerous microspores, while 

 those of the lower part each contained from 

 sixteen to twenty-four megaspores, ten times 

 the diameter of the microspores. The large 

 number of megaspores in a sporangium is interest- 

 ing and suggests a less advanced condition than 

 that of the modern Selaginetta. Another Coal 

 Measure species shares this peculiarity and is 

 further remarkable for the fact that the sporangia 

 arose in the axils of ordinary leaves, no special 



