142 THE SELAGINELLA RUPESTRIS GROUP. 



treated here. The student who wishes to make further 

 investigations is referred to the article by Dr. Hierony- 

 mus in the volume 'of Hedwigia for 1900. A synopsis, 

 with a key to the American forms, was published in the 

 Fern Bulletin, Volume 10, 1902. 



A form from the mountain tops of North and South 

 Carolina, in which the awns on the tips of the leaves 

 are longer and twisted, was long ago described as a 

 species and named Selaginella tortipila. It is more.com- 

 monly called a variety. A plant allied to this, but with 

 stems more erect, is the variety Sherzvoodii (Selaginella 

 SJicrwoodii, Underwood.) Still another form from 

 the coastal plain of the Carolinas and Georgia has been 

 named Selaginella acanthonota. It differs from typical 

 Selaginella rupe$tris\\\ having about twelve cilia along the 

 dorsal groove in the leaves and is probably best consid- 

 ered a variety and called Selaginella rnpestris acantlionota. 

 A densely tufted form from western Nebraska and 

 Montana is the variety densa (Selaginella densa, Rydberg). 

 A form with lax, less crowded leaves, and shorter awns, 

 has been reported from Colorado and New Mexico as 

 the variety Fendleri. Plants from New Mexico and 

 Arizona with smaller megaspores and less angular fertile 

 spikes is the variety rupincola (Selaginella rupincola, 

 Underwood). 



In Baker's " Handbook of the Fern Allies " the 

 range of Selaginella rnpestris is given as " North and 

 South Temperate zones of both the Old and New 

 worlds, also on the Andes, Himalayas, and mountains of 

 Brazil and Ceylon." In the early editions of Under- 

 wood's " Our Native Ferns " it is recorded as growing 

 from " New England to Florida, Texas, California, and 

 northward." In the latest edition of the latter book its 



