388 
• LYCOPODTACE.E. 
and in order of priority, the decay commencing in each leaf 
about an inch above the crown of the rhizoma, and extending 
upwards and downwards ; the decayed portion soon loses its 
rigidity, the upper part bending over and becoming prostrate. 
The leaf retains its attachment long after its vitality has ceased; 
and numerous leaves so attached fall over the tuber when the 
plant is taken from the water, and, mingling with the roots, are 
preserved as such in most of our herbaria. Leaves in a state of 
decay are shown in the figure at page 381. 
The fructification of the Quillwort is very curious. It consists 
of capsules, about the size of swan-shot, placed singly at the 
base of each leaf, in the very substance of which they are im- 
bedded ; only a very small portion of the capsule being visible 
through a circular aperture in the anterior face of the leaf. In 
this structure it differs widely from Lycopodium^ in which 
genus the capsule is quite distinct, although perfectly sessile in 
the axil of the leaf, and removable without injury to the leaf 
itself. The substance of the capsule is hard 
though membranous ; it is attached at a 
single point (5) on its posterior surface, to 
something which appears analogous to a 
midrib of the leaf. The figure in the mar- 
gin represents a capsule removed from its 
cavity in the leaf : from its point of attachment {h) arise what 
appear to be two free placentae {a a) for the attachment of the 
seeds, yet I cannot positively assert that such is their office, for 
I have never opened a capsule without observing that the seeds 
escaped, as if entirely without attachment. Wahlenberg speaks 
of these bodies as being many, and has represented four diverging 
from one point of attachment : from this statement, and that 
author’s surpassing accuracy, I am inclined to suppose the few 
capsules which I have had the opportunity of examining in a 
recent state, and more especially the one which I have drawn, 
to be exceptions to the general rule, especially as in the generic 
character of Isoetes in ‘ English Flora,’* Sir J. E. Smith describes 
the capsule of the fertile flowers as having “ several transverse 
* Eng. Flor. iv. 330. 
