14C> OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



ORDER VII. SELAGINELLACEiE. 



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 Lycopodinm, which 

 this genus resembles. Contains about 335 species widely dis- 

 tributed ; seven are found within our limits. 



§ I. EUSELAGINELLA. Stem leaves of ofte kind, viany- 

 raiiked ; bracts wiiform. 



* Stems prostrate or spreading, somewhat rigid. 

 r. S. rupestris (L.) Spring. Stems densely tufted, pros- 

 trate Or ascending, much-branched, 2' — 12' long; leaves ap- 

 pressed imbricate, linear or linear-lanceolate, convex and sulcate 

 dorsally, rigid, bristle-tipped, ciliate; spikes strongly quadran- 

 gular, 6" — 12" long; sporangia of both sorts in the same axils; 

 macrosporangia abundant ; bracts ovate-lanceolate. {Lycopo- 

 dinm riipestre L., L. bryopteris Wall.) New England to Flor- 

 ida, Texas, California, and northward. 



Var. tortipila (.\. Br.) Unde. Leav^es sub-entire, gibbous 

 near the apex; terminal bracts tipped with a long, twisted, white 

 awn ; macrospores loosely reticulate. Caesar's Head, South 

 Carolina ( J. D. Smith); Negro Mountain, North Carol ina(6^r «_)-)• 



2. S. selaginoides (L.) Link. Sterile stems prostrate-creep- 

 ing, small and slender; fertile stems thicker, ascending, simple, 

 i'— 3' liigh; leaves lanceolate, acute, spreading, sparsely spinu- 

 lose-ciliate; bracts lax, ascending, lanceolate or ovate-lanceo- 

 late, strongly ciliate. (5. spinosa Beauv., Lycopodinm selagi- 

 noides L., L. ciliaticm Lam.) New Hampshire to Colorado and 

 northward to Greenland. 



** Stems pendent, flaccid. 



3. S. Oregrana D. C. Eaton. Stems i°— 6° long, pinnatel^ 



