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Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
some extent. Specimens gathered in shaded situations on hill slopes are 
delicate and often more or less procumbent, with ovate leaves ; while those 
gathered on exposed flats are wiry and erect, with lanceolate leaves. Varia- 
tions in the leaf form may occur in a single specimen, especially if the 
environment be altered during growth (fig. 1). Two instances of lobed 
leaves were noted (fig. 2) ; but these are obviously to be regarded as abnor- 
malities. Individual plants vary greatly in size. Fruiting specimens of 
1 cm. are not uncommon, while the tallest plants noted reached the height 
of 19 cm. By far the greater number are branched ; but small unbranched 
specimens are occasionally met with. 
An excellent figure of the leafy stem and cones of the flats type occurs 
in Marloth's Flora of South Africa, vol. i, fig. 60. 1. ; while the more 
delicate hillside type is figured by Sim (14). Neither of these drawings, 
however, gives a correct impression of the root-system of the plant. As in 
the majority of described species of Selaginella (6), three roots first arise at 
the base of the hypocotyl in the neighbourhood of the spore, the middle 
one being the main root of the sporeling (fig. 3). Each of these roots may 
branch laterally. The erect and slender hypocotyl, which may reach the 
height of about 4 mm., bears the two oppositely placed cotyledons and the 
plumule which is later continued into the leafy stem (fig. 4). Additional 
erect or sub-erect stems with independent root-systems may arise laterally 
from the upper part of the hypocotyl.* The first of these secondary stems 
originates midway between the cotyledons either before or after the appear- 
ance of its root-supply (fig. 5, a-d). A second stem with its root may 
arise at the same level in the neighbourhood of the first, and this process 
may be repeated until, in hardy specimens, a tufted habit results (fig. 6, 
* It is probable that this apparent lateral shoot should be regarded as a delayed 
branch of the first stem dichotomy, the erect axis representing the produced branch. 
Fig. 2. 
Fig. 3. 
