148 



Note on the DIAGNOSTIC CHAKACTEES of the 

 SUBGENERA and SPECIES of Selaginella, Spr. 



By R. J. Harvey Gibson, M.A., F.L.S., F.R.S.E., 



PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LIVERPOOL. 



As is well known to botanists, the genus Selaginella has 

 been subdivided by systematists into subgenera and these 

 again into groups and series in consequence of certain 

 external morphological differences which are exhibited by 

 the members of the Selaginellaceae. Internal anatomy 

 plays no part whatever in the classification. Having been 

 engaged for the past year and a half on an investigation 

 into the minute anatomy of the group, and having had 

 occasion to examine in detail the structure of a large 

 number of species, I have been forced to the conclusion 

 that the taxonomy of the genus requires revision, and 

 that the accepted arrangement is not supported on the 

 whole by anatomical evidence. I am not in a position at 

 the present moment to undertake such a revision as my 

 anatomical work is not yet complete, but I desire to draw 

 attention in a tentative manner to the subject prepara- 

 tory to a future and more systematic treatment. 



The at present accepted classification of the Selagineil- 

 acese is based chiefly on the works of Spring* and 

 Alexander Br aunt. Amongst more recent authors we 

 owe most perhaps to J. G. Baker, F.R.S., whose admirable 

 synopsis {Handbook of the Fern Allies, 1887) is invaluable 

 to students of the Vascular Cryptogams. An examination 



* Monographie de lafamille des Lycopodiacees : M6m. l'acad. roy. belg. 1849. 

 T Revisio Selctginellarum Hortensium : Ann. Sc. Nat. (Bot.) xiii., 1860. 

 AppcndAx Plantaruvi novarum, &c. Berlin, 1856. 



