370 WILLIS : MORPHOLOGY OF THE PODOSTEMACEÆ 
of year. Willisia selaginoides, the species there found, was 
first described and figured by Beddome (3), and has 
hitherto remained almost unknown. It is a very remark- 
able form, with no very evident near relationships among 
the other Indian forms. 
Willisia selaginoides, Wmg. 
(Plates XXVIII.- XXX.) 
Habitat . — I have only seen this plant at one place, in the 
Sholai-aar near Monica estate in the Anamalais, at a height 
of 3,500 feet above sea-level. It was growing in a steep rocky 
gully, somewhat out of the main rush of the water, but 
with a rapid current flowing in it. It was there accom- 
panied, as PI. XXYIIL shows, by Hydrobryum lichenoides 
Fentonii. 
Dry Season Appearance . — This is sufficiently well shown 
by Pis. XXVIIL, XXIX., and is very different from that of 
all the other forms with which we have to deal. The rocks 
are covered with little tufts of stems 2-7 cm. high, each tuft 
often being composed of one plant only; they stand stiffly 
erect, have four rows of scaly leaves each, and are termi- 
nated each by a solitary fruit, typically half concealed 
among the uppermost leaves, but often on a long stalk due 
to the falling away of the tissues. Many stalks in the older 
or longest exposed shoots have often lost the whole or nearly 
the whole of their cortical tissues and their leaves in this 
way. At the base of the shoots one can see indications of a 
small thallus, on which they are closely crowded. The fruit 
is smooth, with unequal valves, one remaining upon the 
pedicel after the fall of the other. Usually at this period 
some plants may also be found alive in the water, and it is 
on material thus obtained that the description here given is 
based. The shoots stand stiffly erect, and consequently the 
flowers are exposed to the air, open, and ripen their fruits 
long before the plant is actually killed by the exposure of 
its thallus (of course, in all probability the thallus, as in the 
