( 65 ) 
aware of. If generally affects wet banks or swards where it creeps to a great 
extent, and sends tip fruit spikes about an inch in height when exposed to 
the full blaze of the sun, and in such places it is most common from the 
sea coast up to 2,000-3,000 feet elevation, forming beautiful moss-like 
patches. Under the shade and in moist rich soil single plauts of it become 
stoloniferous from the several branches and spreads over the surface of the ground 
to the extent of 1 to 2 feet, and here it assumes a beautiful metallic color, like a 
species lately introduced to Ceylon. As far as I can see it is easily identified in all 
its various forms. I have grown it in pots in Colombo and when it covers the 
whole surface and then hangs over the edges and is in full fruit it will vie in 
elegance and beauty with any of the ether species, two foreign ones of which are ex- 
tensively grown in Colombo, and are excellent plants for covering rock work and 
for mixing with bouquets of flowers or for edgings to fruit dishes. 
This and the other species of Selaginellas, are invaiiably called 
<l Mosses'' by people who do not care for the distinctions recognised by 
Botanists, and it would 1 e as futile to attempt to alter this idea, as it 
would be to try and convince most nou-Botanioal persons of the vast dif- 
ference between “ Cassia," and “Acacia!” 
I have in my collection several forms of this genus which I am un- 
certain about, and I received from Dr. Thwaites two forms added to his 
-collection since the publication of his En. PI. Zeyl. C.P. 3975, is a flaccid 
plant with a creeping habit, found by Dr. Thwaites at Kurnngala and 
oeradeniya in August 1868. It is like some forms of 238. 8. concinna, 
but seems distinct. 
C.P. 3979. Collected by Dr. Thwaites in Kallibokka in Sept. 1868, is 
a small erect plant from 1 to inch in height and is in full fruit. 
When I received these two Nos. I looked upon them as forms of 237. S. 
monasphora, and it is likely they are so. 
Moon in his Catalogue, p. 75, gives Lycopodium repens, Sw. Fil. 180 
Willd. l.c. 15. with Bin-hsedaya as the Sinhalese name, and the Ray gam 
Korale as its habitat, but this is likely a,; svnonsym of L. Carolinian um. 
Whether Moon’s plant is this one or one not included in this list I cannot 
say. Moon also gives an erct annual one, for which he quotes : 
Lycopodium canaliculatum. Lin. Willd, l.c. 43. Sw, l.c. 184, and gives 
Mahapana dsetta as its Sinhalese name, and Saffragam as its habitat. It 
may be Selaginella caudata. 
Lycopodium ciliare, Retz. Obs. 5.32. Willd. l.c. 46. given by Moon as 
Heenpana dsetta, Sin. and habitat, Saffragam, is given as a Ceylon plant 
by Retzius, but as more than one of our Ceylon Selaginellas have ciliated 
leaves it is likely a eyn. of one already given above. 
Selaginella brachystacbya. Spring Monog. Lycop ii. 256 given by Baker 
in his Flora of Mauritius, 524, as a native of Mauritius in shady places, 
and also Ceylon and East Himalayas, I cannot make out. It is perhaps 
S. caudata given above. 
239. Psiloturn nudum, Gsiesbach. 
Flora British West Indies, 130. stem 1-2 feet, long, erect, the ultimate 
branches triquetrous, not more than 2 fe 4 inch thick. Leaves at most as long 
as the thickness of the branches, shorter than the capsules. P. triquetrum, 
Sw. Baker in Flora of Mauritius, 521. Thw. En. 378. C. P. 1420. TEt. hawari, 
Sin. Bernhardia dichotoma, Willd.; Hoffmania aphylla, Willd.; Lycopodium 
nudum Linn.; Willd. l.c. 56-7. My specimens of this plant are from coco- 
nut trees near Jayella, about 13 miles from Colombo, and from the large 
Kumbuk tree at Mutual, but I have received specimens of it from other 
parts of the island. It is so liable to be eaten by a species of small brown 
beetle (Anobium) that my specimens not having been poisoned are almost 
entirely destroyed. It seems to be a native everywhere within the tropics 
and a considerable distance beyond them. 
It bears cultivation well, and is not uncommon in hothouses. The 
spores burst when placed in wate and emit a cloud of micro-copic particles. 
