DESCKIPTION OF SrEClES— LYCOPODIACE^. 45 



branches, leaves, and fructifications. Three species of the first group and a.s 

 many of the second have been published Bj' Goldenberg frotn the Upper 

 Carboniferous flora of Saarbruck in Alsatia, besides others, less distinct, known 

 as Lycopodltes, also from the Carboniferous, even the Devonian. From the 

 Coal epoch to the present time, however, this family was until now repre- 

 sented by a single species, Lycopodltes falcatus, L. & H., apparently a 

 Selaginella, from the Oolite of England. Even among the thousands of 

 Tertiary species described by European authors, no plant of this kind is 

 mentioned. This is a remarkable fact, as the Lycopods especially thrive at 

 our time under the shade of Conifers, and as the Permian, the Jurassic, 

 especially, have in their flora, as far as it is known, a large preponderance 

 of species of this kind. The discovery of two or three species of Selaginella 

 and a Lycopodium in our Lignitic flora is, therefore, truly remarkable; 

 and it is especially fortunate that Selaginella at least is represented by a 

 number of so well preserved specimens that the characters cannot be mis- 

 taken. The genus is mostly tropical or equatorial ; its species, especially 

 numerous in Brazil, cover the ground under the shade of Palm trees. An 

 association of this kind is remarked at Golden, where the remains of Palm 

 trunks and leaves are found in profusion. 



LYCOPODIUM, Linn., Spring. 

 Liycopodiiiui promineus, Iiesqx. 

 Plate V, Figs. lS-13 &. 

 Lycopodium prominens, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 409. 



Stems or branches dichotomous; divisions short, slender, erect or half open, distant; leaves alter- 

 nate or disposed in spiral order, cylindrical, inflated, and ohtnsely pointed, apparently connate at the 

 n.arrowed base, half open, like the branches, slightly curved backward. 



The fragment of frond representing this species is half imbedded into 

 the stone, or covered by a thin concretionary compound, the branches and 

 leaves being in relief upon the surface. The slender divisions, of the same 

 size as the main axis, vary in length and in degree of divergence. The 

 leaves, three to four millimeters long, half a millimeter wide, are loosely 

 imbricated, open-erect, inflated toward the point or club-shaped, obtuse 

 or acute, some of them curved outside. As seen in fig. 13 b, no trace of a 

 middle nerve is recognizable upon them, even with a strong glass ; but this 

 may be due to the thin crust of clayey matter which covers the whole plant. 

 There is upon the same specimen an obscure fragment, which appears to 



