502 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURAL ORDERS. 



a kind of ament, one-celled, or rarely two- to three-celled, dehiscent, 

 containing either minute grains, appearing like fine powder, or a few 

 rather large sporules ; both kinds often found in the same plant. — 

 Ex. Lycopodium (Club-Moss, Ground Pine), Selaginella. — Append- 

 ed to this family, rather than to the next (with whicl> it has gener- 

 ally been associated), is the 



968. Subord. Isoetineaj {Quillwort Family), consisting of a few 

 acaulescent submersed aquatics, with their sporangia in the axils 

 and immersed in the inflated base of the grassy subulate leaves. — 

 Ex. Isoetes. 



969. Ol'd. HydropterideS. Aquatic or marshy cryptogamous plants, 

 of diverse habit, with the fructification borne at the bases of the 

 leaves, or on submerged branches : this consists of two sorts of or- 

 gans, contained in indehiscent or irregularly bursting involuci'es 

 (sporocarps). It comprises the 



970. Subord. MarsilaceSD {Pepperwort Family) ; with creeping stems ; 

 the leaves long-stalked, circinate in vernation, and of four obcordate 

 leaflets in Marsilea, or filiform and destitute of leaflets in Pilularia 

 (the Pilhvort). 



971. Subord, SalvinieSB; which are free floating plants, with alter- 

 nate and sometimes imbricated sessile leaves ; the fructification 

 borne on the stem or branches underneath. — Ex. Salvinia, Azolla. 

 (For illustrations, see Manual of Botany, Plate 14.) 



Class IV. Anophytes. 



Vegetables composed of parenchyma alone, with acrogenous 

 growth, usually with distinct foliage, sometimes the stem and foliage 

 confluent into a frond. 



972. Ord. Musci (Mosses). Low, tufted plants, always with a stem 

 and distinct (sessile) leaves, producing spore-cases which mostly 

 open by a terminal lid, and contain innumerable simple spores. The 

 fertilizing organs, or antheridia, have been elsewhere mentioned. In 

 Mosses these accompany the pistillidia ; the latter develop into the 

 capsule, or more properly the sporangium or spore-case. This is 

 rarely (in Andrtica) dehiscent into four valves, or irregularly rup- 

 tured (in Phascum, &c.). It usually opens by a lid (operculum) : 

 beneath the lid and arising from the mouth of the capsule are com- 

 monly either one or two rows of rigid processes (collectively the 



