Selapinella.] CLIV. LYCOPODIACE^. 1927 



aoufce. Spikes very short, resupinate. Bracts dimorphous, those of the upper 

 plane ovate, aoute, ereoto-patent ; of the lower plane ovate-cuspidate, ascending. 

 — LycOpodium pumilio, R. Br. 

 Hab.: Endeavour Eiver, Banks and Solander. 



4. AZOLLA, Linn. 



(From azo, to dry, and olio, to kill ; a dry condition causes the plant to perish.) 



Small floating plants, with branching and rooting leafy stems. Leaves small, 

 imbricate, unequally 2-lobed. Spore-cases in pairs, sessile in the axils of the 

 leaves on the main branches, one a globular membranous sac enclosing a cluster 

 of small globular pedicellate spores (or sporangia), the other smaller, ovoi'l, con- 

 taining a single maorospore surrounded at the base by 2, 4 or more corpuscles, 

 called by some antheroids, by others abortive spores. 



. A genus of few species, dispersed pver the tropical, the Northern subtropical and Southern 

 cooler regions of the globe. Of the two Australian species one is also Asiatic and African, tho 

 other extends only to New Zealand, 



Brandies of the stem linear and regularly piniiate ... 1. A. phinata^ 



Branches of the stem with the leaves shortly obovate 2. A. rubra. 



1. A. pinnata (pinnate), R. Br. in Blind. Voy. ii. 611, t. IC, Prod. 167 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 679. Stems once or twice pinnate, broadly ovate in outline, 

 with linear leafy branches, each plant under lin. long but generally collected in 

 large masses on the surface of the water, emitting numerous rootlets, at first 

 entire and sometimes dilated and flat, the older ones elegantly feathery. Leaves 

 ovate, obtuse, concave, regularly but loosely imbricate, the upper lobe of each 

 leaf about f line long, the lower lobe smaller. Larger spore-cases when full- 

 grown globular, reddish, ,jiearly 1 line diameter, the smaller ones oblong, about ^ 

 line long, with usually 4 corpuscles at the base of the macrospore.— Griff, in 

 Calcjitta Journ; Nat. Hist. y. 257, t. 15 to 17 ; Metten. in Linneea, xx. 273, t. 3. 



Hab.: Southern still waters. Dispersed over tropical Asia and Africa. 



2. A. rubra (red),, R. Br. Prod. 167 ; Benth. Fl, Austr. vii. 680. Individual 

 plants smaller more compact and broader than in A. pinnata, the branches short, 

 with fewer closely imbricate but spreading leaves, the roots all simple. Larger 

 spore-cases globular, about ^ line diameter, the smaller oblong ones scarcely ^ 

 line, the striicture otherwise the same as in A. pinnata. — Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 

 168. 



Hab.: Common, still waters. Also in New Zealand. 



5. TMESIPTERIS, Bernh. 



(Named from the position of the sori, in notch of bract.) 



Stems simple, leafy. Leaves vertical, sessile and decurrent, entire, intermixed 



with leafy bracts bipartite on a short petiole. Spore-cases usually two together, 



united into a capsule-like sorus, sessile on the petiole of the bracts, transversely 



oblong, flattened, 2-oelled and didymous or 2-lobed, opening loculicidally in 2 



valves. Spores minute, uniform. 



The genus is limited to a single sp^cies {ound also in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. 



1. T. tannensis (qf Tanna), Bernh. in Schrad. Journ. 1800, ii. 13l, t. 2, /. 5 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 680. Stems from a creeping slender rootstock ascending or 

 pendulous, 6in. to 1ft. long. Leaves obliquely oblong or narrow lanceolate, 

 usually about ^in. long but sometimes nearly lin. i truncate obtuse or acute at the 

 end, the lower margin shortly decurrent, the single central nerve often produced 

 at the end into a fine point. Bracts rather shorter than the leaves and 

 occasionally replacing them in the upper part of the stem, deeply divided into 2 



