374 
LYCOPODIACE^. 
smaller bodies are true seeds, the large ones gemmae or buds ; 
others that the smaller are abortive and the larger productive 
seeds ; and others again that the larger ones only are seed, the 
smaller ones being grains of pollen. 
Wahlenberg^ has given a very clear and accurate description 
of this twofold fructification. He observes that the capsules 
containing the graniform seeds are subquadrilocular, in reality 
bivalve, but sometimes dehiscing in four directions ; they occupy 
the lower portion of the spike, and are larger and more protube- 
rant than those above. The seeds are always four in number, 
and are so squeezed and pressed together that three triangular 
areas are produced at the base of each ; in this particular they 
so much resemble the seeds of Isoetes lacustris, that, agreeing 
as the plants do in so many other respects, it is hardly possible 
to doubt their being closely related. The seeds are nearly as 
large as those of the poppy, and invariably fall from the capsule 
entire and are scattered upon the earth, a circumstance quite 
conclusive against their being anthers, as suggested by Hedwig. 
Capsules filled with the powdery seed common to the other 
Lycopodia and the bivalved ferns, occur in the axils of the up- 
per bracts ; this powder consists of somewhat hirsute granules, 
four of which are combined in a tetrahedron, exactly like the 
seeds in the lower capsules, exhibiting a very obvious analogy 
between the two kinds of seed, and leaving no doubt of their 
having the same origin. If therefore the powder emitted from 
the capsules of Botrychium Lunaria be true seed, it follows 
that the powder produced by the capsules of Lycopodium Sela- 
ginoides is seed also. It cannot be male pollen, its appearance 
being precisely synchronous with that of the mature seeds. 
The spike itself is annual, decaying immediately after it has 
fruited in July or the beginning of August, and the next year a 
new spike springs from some other part of the prostrate stem, 
on no part of which can a trace of future capsules be found. 
From these circumstances it seems probable that the only diffe- 
rence between the granules is that of size, each being to be re- 
garded as true seed : a somewhat analogous discrepancy occurs 
in the varied form of the seeds of spinach. 
* See Appendix H. 
