SELAGINELLACE&. 137 



Family 2. SELAGINELLACE/E. 



Plant-body leafy, terrestrial, moss-like, with branching stems 

 and minute scale-like leaves. Sporangia one-celled, solitary, 

 axillary, some containing microspores, and others macrospores. 

 Contains a single genus largely tropical. 



I. SELAGINELLA Beauv. 



Fructification arranged in spikes. Sporangia minute, sub- 

 globose, opening transversely; some containing usually 4 glo- 

 bose macrospores, and others smaller, filled with numerous 

 microspores. Leaves 4 many ranked. Name a diminutive of 

 Selago, an ancient name of some species of Lycopodium, which 

 this genus resembles. Contains about 335 species widely dis- 

 tributed ; seven are found within our limits. 



i. EUSELAGINELLA. Stem leaves of one kind, many- 

 ranked ; bracts uniform. 



* Stems spreading or creeping. 



f Stems \' 4' long. 

 \ Stems rooting at base only. 



1. S. selaginoides (L.) Link. Sterile stems prostrate- 

 creeping, small and slender; fertile stems thicker, ascending ) 

 simple, i' 3' high; leaves lanceolate, acute, spreading, sparsely 

 spinulose ciliate ; bracts lax, ascending, lanceolate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, strongly ciliate. (S. spinosa Beauv., Lycopodium 

 selaginoides L., L. ciliatum Lam.) New Hampshire to Colorado 

 and northward to Greenland. 



I Stems sending out roots their entire length. 

 || Leaves ending in a conspicuous white awn. 



2. S. rupestris (L.) Spring. Stems creeping, 2' 4' long, 

 more or less flexuous, the apices ascending, subsecund, abun- 

 dantly emitting roots throughout their entire length ; primary 

 branches mostly short with 3 6 shorter secondary ones ; leaves 

 closely imbricate, about 8-ranked, spreading at the apex of 

 sterile stems, narrowly lanceolate, one sixth of a line wide, deeply 

 channeled dorsal ly, ending in a subflexuous s'pinulose white 

 awn nearly ^" long ; margins each with 6 9 slender cilia ; spikes 



