Bott'ychium.} 
II. LYCOPODIACE/E. 
387 
divided frond, and a branched spike or panicle of fructification. Capsules 
globose, distichously arranged on the branches, separate from one another, 
bursting transversely. Spores very minute, 3-lobed. 
A small genus, found in most temperate and warm regions of the globe, but rare in very 
hot ones. 
1. B. cicutarium, Swartz. Stout, rarely slender, 3-18 in. high, gla- 
brous or slightly pilose. Frond broadly ovate or deltoid, 2- or 3-pinnatifid 
or 3-nately decompound ; pinnae variable in shape, oblong, obtuse, crenate, 
obscurely veined ; peduncle of the fruiting panicle radical or nearly so, 2-pin- 
nately branched above. 
Yar. a. Frond stout, fleshy. — B. virginicum, FI. N. Z. ii. 50, not Linn.; FI. Tasman, 
ii. t. 109 B ; B. australe, Br. ; B. lunarioides, Swartz. 
Var. 0. dissectum. Frond slender, much more finely divided.— — B. dissectum , Muhlen- 
berg ; B. lunarioides , var. dissectum , A. Gray. 
Northern and Rliddle Islands : var. a, abundant, Banks and Solander, etc. ; var. 0 , 
Whangarei,near Auckland, G. Burnett , Esq. The var. a is a common plant in many parts 
of the globe, temperate and tropical, including Australia and Tasmania. Yar. 0 is also 
frequent in North America and in some parts of Asia and Europe, but seems to be very 
scarce in New Zealand : it looks remarkably different, but is united by intermediate forms 
in the northern hemisphere. Its discoverer in New Zealand observes that var. a is abundant- 
in the same neighbourhood where var. 0 itself is so scarce. 
Order II. LYCOPODIACE^], 
Erect or prostrate or creeping, rarely climbing, simple or branched plants, 
with usually rigid stems. Stems and ribs of the leaves with bundles of 
vascular tissue, consisting of wood-fibres and spirally-marked and barred 
vessels. — Leaves imbricated all round the stem or distichous or 4-fariously 
arranged, small, usually coriaceous, subulate, and nerveless, sometimes 
flattened and I-nerved, sometimes of 2 forms, the larger distichous, smaller 
stipule-like. Capsules sessile in the axils of the leaves or of the scales 
of terminal sessile or peduncled, cylindric or 4-gonous cones, 2- or 3- 
valved, 1-3-celled, of two kinds : 1st, compressed, often reniform, coriaceous 
capsules, 2-valved, full of microscopic, obtusely 3-gonous spores ; 2nd, larger 
capsules, containing 3 or 4 much larger spores, each marked with 3 radiating 
lines at the top. 
Germination has been observed in the large spores of the genus Selaginella only, which 
does not occur in New Zealand. In this genus the contents of the large spore develope a 
small cellular expansion within its coat, under the position of the three radiating lines ; upon 
this (the pro-embryo or prothallium) cellular papillae (archegonia) appear, each containing an 
open cavity, at the base of which is a free cell, from which the future plant is afterwards 
developed. The cellular papill® are produced iu abundance on the prothallium along three 
radiating lines corresponding to those on the coat of the spore, but only one gives origin 
to a young plant. The small spores of Selaginella produce antheridia, which are cells 
containing a spiral thread endowed with motion (spermatozoa); these no doubt gain access to 
the papillae on the prothallium, but no one has proved this to be so. Nothing is known of 
the process of fertilization or reproduction in any of the New Zealand genera, to which the 
attention of the student should be directed. 
Lycopodiacece are found in all situations and all quarters of the globe except the driest; 
the New Zealand species are the largest of the Order, and present nearer affinities to the 
fossil Lycopodiacex of the Coal period than any other existing plants. 
