HoLLOWAY. — Studies in fht Sew Zealand Species of Lvcopodiinn. 179 



SECTION INUNDATA. 



There is only one species in New Zealand which belongs to the Inundata 

 section, this being L. Drummondii. I have gathered this species on the 

 sphagnum peat-bog at the outlet of Lake Tongonge, Kaitaia, North Auck- 

 land, the only locality where it has been found in New Zealand. It will 

 be convenient to consider this species by itself. 



External Form of Plant, and Nature of Strobilus. 



In Plate XIV, at C, are shown two small specimens of this plant. It 

 may attain a length of 7 in. to 8 in., and possess one to three spikes. 

 The variation in form from the normal which I have observed in this species 

 is that occasionally the cone, which corresponds in form to that of L. caro- 

 liniamim figured by Pritzel in Engler and Prantl (13, fig. 378), may be 

 interrupted. In some plants the lower half of the cone clearly belongs to 

 the past season's growth, being dark in colour, with empty outstanding 

 sporophylls, and there is a well-defined demarcation between this and the 

 farther prolongation of the cone in the succeeding season. Again, in other 

 instances there is a sterile zone as much as | in. in length separating the 

 two portions of the cone. In Plate XIV, C, the left-hand specimen 

 shows an interrupted cone, the point of demarcation between the two 

 seasons' growth being indicated by a cross. Also, in some specimens the 

 erect fertile branch which generally appears as a very distinct peduncle 

 to the cone, with leaves in scattered whorls, shows instead throughout a 

 greater or lesser portion of its lower region crowded leaves such as are 

 borne on the trailing stems. Thus, although in this species the fertile 

 legion is differentiated as a definite club-shaped cone, and even the erect 

 branch on which it is borne is also differentiated as a peduncle, yet varia- 

 tions occur which indicate that this character is in a state of plasticity. 



Stem-anatomy. 



The stelar anatomy in the main stem is shown in fig. 9. It wiU be well 

 for me to describe this in some detail here, as it is typical for all the New 



Zealand species which belong to the 

 sections Inundata and Cernua. The 

 general appearance of metaxylem and 

 protoxylem, as well as the configura- 

 tion of these tissues, is in striking 

 contrast to that of the same tissues 

 in the stem of the Phlegmaria and 

 Selago sections. In L. Drummondii 

 the metaxylem is somewhat feebly 

 lignified, and does not show the pre- 

 sence of small-sized elements flanking 

 the larger ones. Also the degree of 

 coherence of the metaxylem elements 



"^Q^ 



-N^ 



one to another into plates or groups 

 is much slighter, so that there is a 

 very characteristic mixing of the xylem 

 with the phloem. The protoxylem 

 elements are much fewer in number in 

 this species than in those of the Selago and Phlegmaria sections, where 

 the protoxylem groups are exceedingly massive, but they are so extended 



Fig. 9. — Lycopodium Drummondii. Trans 

 verse section of stele of creepins 

 stem. X 137. 



