V 201 ) 
STUDIES IN THE MORPHOLOGY OF SELAGINELLA 
PUMILA, SPRING. 
Part I. — The Vegetative Organs of the Sporophyte. 
By A. V. Duthie. 
(With twenty-six Text-figures.) 
With the exception of a doubtful record from Natal, this small annual 
species of Selaginella is known only from the Cape Province. It has been 
collected in most of the coastal districts from the Cape Peninsula to 
Alexandria, and has recently been found as far inland as Tulbagh. As the 
species is inconspicuous and might easily escape the notice of collectors, it 
is probable that its distribution is more general than is usually supposed. 
In the Stellenbosch district it occurs abundantly from July to October, 
and is generally found on clayey soil associated with liverworts and mosses 
and forming part of the annual flora of flats and hill slopes. It has also 
been found growing luxuriantly in water-logged turf by the side of 
trickling water. 
So far as I am aware, the only recent work dealing with the species is 
contained in a paper by Sykes and Stiles (15) which appeared in the Annals 
of Botany in 1910. 
The observations embodied in the present paper have extended over 
several years, and have brought to light certain interesting features, some 
of which do not appear to have been recorded for other species. The paper 
deals chiefly with the external morphology and anatomy of the vegetative 
organs of the sporophyte. A general discussion of the results will be 
postponed until after the completion of the work. 
Sclechtendal (10) figured two varieties of S. pumila, namely, pygmaeum 
and bryoides, differing in size, the latter being the larger and more pro- 
cumbent. Hieronymus (6) recognises two distinct species under the names 
S. pumila, Sclecht., and S. bryoides (Kaulf.), Hieron., the former character- 
ised by lanceolate, the latter by ovate, leaves. The characters upon which 
the two species or varieties have been based are found, on the examination 
of material from different parts of the Stellenbosch district, to overlap to 
