SELAGINELLA. 227 



yellow. The process is simply that of boiling the cloth in 

 water, along with a quantity of the Lycopodmm, and some 

 leaves of the Bog Whortleberry. 



Genus XXI. SELAGINELLA. 



The Selaginellas differ from the Lycopodiums in pro- 

 ducing two kinds of spores, which have been already 

 alluded to. The name is a diminutive of Selago, the 

 specific appellation of one of the commoner Lycopods. 



Selaginella spinosa, Palisot de Beauvais. 

 Prickly Mountam Mess. 



This plant is perhaps generally known by the name of 

 Lycopodium selaginoides, which it formerly bore. It has 

 a slender, procumbent, often branched stem, the barren 

 branches short and sinuous, the fertile ones ascending or 

 erect, and from two to three inches high. They are 

 clothed with lance-shaped leaves, of a delicate texture, 

 jagged along the margins with spiny teeth ; those on the 

 decumbent stems being shorter, as well as more distant and 

 spreading, than those of the fertile branches. 



Q 2 



