CHAPTER XXIV, 



SELAGINELLA, Spring. 



( Sel-a-gin-el'-la.) 



Club Mosses. 



N his exhaustive and excellent work, the " Handbook of the 

 Fern- Allies," Mr. J. Gr. Baker very succinctly enumerates and 

 describes those plants which, like Ferns, produce spores from 

 which they are or may be readily increased. Under the 

 appellation of " Fern- Allies " Baker gives the classification 

 and descriptions of Azolla, Equisetum, Isoetes, Lycopodium, Marsilea, Pilularia, 

 Psilotum, Salvinia, Selaginella, and Tmesipteris. Of the above-named genera, 

 all very interesting in themselves, Selaginella is the only one which, from 

 a decorative point of view, deserves special attention. Whereas one may 

 occasionally, but very seldom, find in cultivation one or a few of the plants 

 belonging to the other genera, Selaginellas are extensively grown both in 

 private establishments and in nurseries. It may in fact be said that of all 

 " Fern- Allies " this is the only genus which deserves and receives any 

 attention at the hands of gardeners, who frequently, though erroneously, refer 

 to these plants as Lycopodiums, from which they differ in their dimorphic 

 spores and sporangia. 



The distinguishing characters of Selaginella reside in the disposition of 

 the leaves, which are arranged on two planes, those of the upper plane usually 

 much smaller than those of the lower, and in the presence of sporangia of 

 two kinds : macrosporangia and microsporangia, not contained in any exterior 

 wrapper, but placed in the axils of altered or unaltered leaves upon 



