SELAGINELLA. 411 



about them. To that effect, they should be placed on a solid bed which 

 constantly gives off moisture, or, if this is impracticable on account of the 

 house being provided with permanent stages, these should be covered with 

 sphagnum, to be kept wet ; and the pans should not be allowed to rest 

 directly on the moss, but be set up above it upon three small pots or on 

 an inverted pan, so as to avoid all direct contact with the saturated material. 

 Plants so arranged will derive all the benefit of the surrounding moisture 

 without their soil becoming sour. Although they have a particular dislike to 

 standing permanently in the wet, Selaginellas reG[uire copious waterings at the 

 roots, and for that reason it is necessary that their pots or pans shall be 

 thoroughly well drained. They should not be syringed overhead, or only 

 very sparingly during the hot summer days, as their massive though . feathery 

 fronds cannot long endure being wetted. 



Principal Species and Varieties. 



S. affinis — af-fi'-nis (related), A. Braun. 



This stove species, better known in gardens as S. rigida, is a native of 

 Guiana. Its stems, 1ft. or more in length, and of a trailing nature, are 

 jointed at the nodes, and forked low down into copiously-divided branches. 

 The fruiting spikes are Jin. to Jin. long. — Baker, Handbook of the Fern-Allies, 

 p. 63. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, iii., p. 409. 



S. africana — af-ric-a'-na (African). A garden name for S. Vogeli 



ti. 



S. albo-nitens — al-bo-nit'-ens (shining- white), Spring. 



A greenhouse species, of slender, trailing habit, with stems copiously 

 pinnate, their upper branches simple, and the lower slightly divided. The 

 leaves of the lower plane, spaced on the main stem, are spreading, spear-shaped, 

 bright green, very narrow, unequal-sided, and shortly ciliated ; those of the 

 upper plane are one-third as long and distinctly cuspidate (having a sharp, 

 stiff point). The fruiting spikes are Jin. to Jin. long. — Baker, Handbook 

 of the Fern-Allies, p. 72. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, iii., p. 409. 



S. amcena — am-ce'-na (pleasing). A variety of S. caulescens. 



S. apoda — ap'-od-a (footless). A garden name for S. apus. 



