SELAGINELLA FAMILY. 508 



CXLI. SELAGINELLACEJE, SELAGINELLA FAMILY. 



Low, moss-like, often creeping plants, with scale-like leaves 

 (mostly 4-rowed, the alternate rows often of smaller leaves), 

 differing from the last family chiefly in having 1-celled spore 

 cases which contain two kinds of spores (the nature of which 

 need not be explained here). (Lessons, Figs. 513-515.) One 

 genus : 



1. SELAGINELLA. (Name a diminutive of Selago, a species of 

 Lycopodium.) Species over 200, the greater part tropical. 



1. Native species. 



S. rup^stris, Spring. Exposed rocks ; a common moss-like little 

 evergreen; stems and densely tufted branches l'-2' high; leaves awl- 

 shaped, marked with a narrow furrow on the back, and tipped with a 

 minute bristly point ; spikes four-cornered. 



S. apus, Spring. Damp places in meadows; common, especially S.; 

 very delicate ; stems 2'-4' high, sparingly branched ; leaves 4-rowed, those 

 of the side rows spreading horizontally, scarcely 1" long, ovate with the 

 upper side larger, minutely serrulate ; intermediate ones half as large, 

 erect, very acute ; spikes 2"-6" long. Often cult, as S. densa. 



2. Cultivated, mostly tropical species, seen in conservatories j much 

 branched; leaves of the branches four-rowed, two side rows of spreading 

 leaves set apparently edgewise, and two upper rows of smaller appressed 

 leaves. Spike four-cornered, at the ends of the branchlets. 



* Stems trailing, sending out rootlets nearly up to the end. 



S. Kraussiana, A.Br. (LrcopdoiuM DENTICULA.TDM of the florists.) The 

 commonest conservatory species, used for edgings, etc. ; stems very long, 

 articulated beneath each branch ; branches distant, bearing a few short 

 forked branchlets, which are 2' -3" broad, their leaves closely placed in 

 each row ; leaves bright green, the larger ones oblong-ovate, acute, rounded 

 on the upper side, nearly straight on the lower, minutely denticulate ; 

 smaller ones with longer often reflexed points. 



* * Stems ascending, only the lower part bearing long rootlets. 



S. Martensii, Spring. (L,Ycop6DiuM sxOLONfFEROM of florists). Stems 

 6'-10' long, much branched from the base; branches bipinnate, with 

 copious branchlets 2"-3" or even 4" wide ; larger leaves crowded, 

 obliquely ovate, the upper side broadest, obtuse, entire; smaller ones 

 ovate, with a slender often recurved point. 



* * * Stems erect, or nearly so, rooting only at the very base. 



S. erypthropus, Spring. Stalk 2'-6' high, bright red, having a few closely 

 appressed red leaves, and bearing at the top a broad frond-like stem pin- 

 nately or pedately divided into a few 2-3 times pinnate branches, with 

 very numerous extremely crowded branchlets 1"-!^" wide ; leaves closely 

 imbricated, obliquely ovate-oblong, curved upward, rather obtuse, ciliate ; 

 smaller ones ovate, with long straight points. 



* * * * Stems in a dense, nest-like tuft, not rooting; branches often curl- 

 ing up when dry. 



S. lepidophylla, Spring. BIRD'S-NEST Moss, RESURRECTION PLANT. It 

 is a nest-like ball when dry, but when moist it unfolds and displays the 

 densely 2-3-pinnate, elegant, fern-like branches radiating from a coiled- 

 up central stem ; the leaves white- margined, closely imbricated, round- 

 ovate, obtuse. Texas, W. and S. 



