( 64 ) 
235. Selaginella canrlatum, Bpring. 
Mon. 139. Lycopolium candatum, Dasv. Benth. FI. Hoagk. p. 437, 
C. P. 3284. This is a fine tal ! erect fan-like plant, and the most- robust 
of our Selaginellas. It is evidently a rare plant confined to the forests of 
the higher mountains. I have not collected the plant representing the 
C. P. 3284, but the specimens I have seen indicate that it sends down long 
roots from the lower parts, the upper erect and growing without support. 
When Dr. Thwaites was looking over my packets of Selaginellas several 
years ago, I attracted his attention to a small plant which I found first 
spreading close to the ground and rooting at every joint, near the Hangwelle 
Pest-house and afterwards not far from Kelaniya about seven miles from 
Colombo. I could not fit this one into any of the plants given in the 
En., but the Dr. ultimately said it was 8 caudata, but its habit and place 
of growth are so different from the large erect Kandyan plant that I doubt 
their identity. The small one grows readily on the surface of shaded 
flower pots in Colombo. 
2 >6. Selaginella cau!e«cen«, Soring. 
Mon. 158, C. P. 985. A very abundant plant growing on rocks on the 
summits of the higher ranges of the Kandyan country, where it grows in 
dense upright tufts, with rigid wiry stems, and of a light green color, but 
not often in fruit. This plant grows generallg in the full blaze of the 
sun, and very little soil, so that it does not seem to possess any 
moisture and no amount of pressure in drying it seems to prevent 
it from curling up when the pressure is removed. It is easily distinguished 
from all our other Ceylon species by its habit and the scattered sessile 
arrow-shaped leaves round its stems. 
I had some trouble in fitting into this species a few almost stemles 
plants collected by me in some parts of the Western Province ; several trials 
to grow it in Colombo resulted in failure. 
237. Sebginella atroviridis, Spring. 
Mon. 124. S. monospora, Spr. l.c. 135. Lycopodium atroviridis, Wall., 
Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 117. B. Benth. 1. c. C. P. 1417 1418. 
A very abundant and variable plant, some forms of it a good deal like 
234, S. stolonifera, but it is generally an erect plant growing in beautiful 
erect tufts. Found in the forests of the higher ranges of the Kandyan coun- 
try and most abundantly as a weed in coffee estates in several districts, 
and now, if I am correct in my belief, equally common in the cleared group 
of Liberian coffee t states a few miles inland from Kalutara. Here and in 
some coffee estates in Dimbula it spreads along the ground to a considera- 
ble extent, forming a dense cushion in which no other small plant can well 
grow, and often in separate erect tufts in abundance of fruit. I notice that 
the planters religiously scrape this plant and Oxalis corniculata from the 
surface of the ground as weeds, but I question if these two pi nts are not 
more beneficial than otherwise by preventing the soil from wash during 
heavy rains. The Selaginella at least does not rob the soil of much as its 
roots do not penetrate to any depth. Several attempts to grow this beautiful 
and delicate plant in Colombo failed. 
238. Selaginella concinna, Spring. 
Mon. 199. Lycopodium concinnum, Sw. Willd. l.c. 40. L. ornithopo- 
dioides, Lin. FI. Zeyl. No. 388. p. 184 Hern. Herb. 3. fol. 1. Willd. 1. c. 
36. Bird’s-foot Salaginella. Balal-pahuru, Sinhalese, which means Cat’s-claw. 
Moon, Cat. 75. A very abundant, and very variable plant as to size, collected 
by Paul Herman in Ceylon in 1676-67 and given by Linnaeus in his Flora 
Zeylanica as above. In quoting the Synonyyms for this plant I depend on 
my “ inward consciousness . to some extent, as I have no modern work on 
this family where the synonyms are given. Moon gives Colombo as its habitat, 
where it is found in great abundance, and no other species wild that I am 
