392 
LYCOPODIACE.E. 
is situated, decays, and losing its rigidity sometimes becomes 
torn or broken off by the action of the water, thus permitting 
free egress to the seeds which in all probability rise to the sur- 
face of the water, and, being carried about by the action of 
wind, germinate after a certain number of days, and then, sink- 
ing to the bottom, take root and become isolated plants of the 
dwarf, brittle, spreading kind. It must be observed that this 
escape, floating, germinating, and sinking of the seed, have been 
fully ascertained in the species next described, and therefore is 
very probably take place in Isoetes, But although some seeds 
escape in the manner I have described, by far the greater number 
remain in the capsule, and there germinate, throwing up the 
most dense tufts of slender leaves, of a vivid and very delicate 
green colour. I am indebted to Miss Beever for specimens 
which beautifully exhibit this germination of the seeds in situ, 
the parent plant and its offspring having been dried while in the 
most favourable state for displaying this peculiarity, to which 
Miss Beever particularly called my attention. These young 
plants rapidly increase in size, send their roots downwards into 
the earth, and their leaves upwards into the water ; and from the 
crowding incident on this condition of the seedling plants the 
elongate and slender leaves would naturally result. This germi- 
nation of the seed in situ, I moreover imagine to be the true 
cause of the appearance of “ crowding by lateral increase,” spo- 
ken of by Mr. Wilson. The specimens deposited in the herba- 
rium of the Linnean Society, will, I trust, not only fully establish 
the fact that this is the usual mode of increase in this truly re- 
markable plant, but will induce many to agree with me, that it 
is also sufficient to account for the difference in habit between 
plants reared in this way and those which spring from escaped 
and dispersed seeds. 
It appears from a passage in Ray’s ‘ Synopsis ’ that the Quill- 
wort may be cultivated with success in fishponds.* 
* Quamvis Dr. Richardson in piscinis suis plantaverit, ibique laete vigeat 
planta, &c. — Syn. 306. 
