PILULARIA SPOROPHYTE 319 



II. Heterosporous Type 

 PILULARIA OLOBULIFERA (The Pill- Wort) 



1. External Characters 



I. This plant is to be found, but not very commonly, 

 growing on the edges of moorland ponds : owing to its 

 small size, and to the appearance of its leaves, it may 

 often be passed over, as it frequently grows among 

 other plants of aquatic habit from which it is not 

 readily distinguished at first sight. Examine specimens 

 of the plant with the naked eye, and note 



1. The cylindrical, green, creeping rhizome, with 

 an upturned apex, which bears 



2. Simple cylindrical vertically growing leaves : 

 note their alternate arrangement, and lateral inser- 

 tion on the axis; also their crozier-like or circinate 

 vernation. 



3. One or more brown roots are attached to the 

 under side of the rhizome at points below each of the 

 successive leaves. 



4. Lateral branches, which repeat the characters 

 of the main axis, are attached beside and slightly below 

 the leaves, but their position is not axillary. 



5. In the autumn, round, brown, pill-like bodies, the 

 sporocarps, are to be found attached by short stalks 

 to the axis, and apparently in an axillary position. 



