HoLLOWAY. — Studies in the New Zealand Species of Lycopodiiim. 181 



External Form of Plant and Nature of Strohilus. 



Of these L. cernuum is illustrated in Plate XI, A. This figure shows 

 one loop of the main plagiotropic stem with two nodes on which roots are 

 borne, and also a single erect fertile branch arising from the upper side 

 of the main stem. The figure which Pritzel gives in Engler and Prantl 

 (13, fig. 379, A) of the erect fertile branch of this species shows roots at its 

 base. This is obviously wrongly figured. The only variation to be noted here 

 in the external form of the plant is that the New Zealand variety is a very 

 robust-growing plant, while certain tropical forms of the same species are 

 much more delicate in all parts of the })lant. This is well seen from a com- 

 parison of the two forms marked A and B in Plate XI, A being the New 

 Zealand variety and B a variety from the New Hebrides. S^iecimens from 

 Fiji and from the West Indies which T have in my possession correspond 

 very closely with B, and Mr. Cheeseman informs me that this is also the 

 form of the species as it occurs in Melanesia and north iVustralia. An exami- 

 nation of Pritzel 's classification of the section Cenma shows that several of 

 the species included in it are varieties of the typical form L. cernuum.. 



Two erect-growing aerial shoots of L. laterale, together with a small 

 portion of the underground rhizome from which they arise, are shown on 

 Plate XII, fig. 1, A. This illustrates well the form assumed by this 

 species when it grows amidst tangled vegetation composed of Leptospermum, 

 Gleichenia, &c. The aerial shoots in such a habitat are very slender, and attain 

 an extreme height of 2 ft. to 3 ft. It is obvious that such shoots depend 

 upon the surrounding vegetation to support them in an erect position, and 

 that therefore they are abnormal in form. The specimen illustrated shows 

 that the extreme height of these shoots represents the growth of two seasons, 

 the point at which the second season's growth commenced being indicated 

 by a cross. When growing on open, boggy hillsides, as it does commonly 

 on the kauri-gum lands of the Auckland Province, the aerial branches of 

 this species assume a much shorter, stouter, and less-branched form, and 

 are reddish in colour. The rhizome, with its vascular tissues, also in this 

 case is stouter. In this species the cones are typically lateral and sessile, 

 but they are also sometimes borne on short, leaf-covered peduncles, and 

 are then to be regarded as terminal This variation in the position of the 

 cones in L. laterale provides a transition to the next species, in which one 

 of the chief distinguishing characters is the terminal position of the cones. 



The species L. ramulosum is described by Pritzel as occurring in the 

 New Zealand mountains ; but its habitat is, on the contrary, wet ground at 

 low altitudes, especially that of sphagnum bogs.* It was first described by 

 T. Kirk (22) from Westland, and later still from Stewart Island. I have 

 studied this species in both these districts, and have some interesting varia- 

 tions to record. A single plant is shown in Plate XII, fig. 1, B. Cheeseman 

 figures it in his Illustrations of the New Zealand Flora (9), and a plant, 

 incomplete in its lower regions, is also figured by Kirk (22, pi. 19, fig. B). 

 In his first description of it Kirk says, " Not infrequently two spikes are 

 produced from the apex of a branch, and rarely the fertile branch is over- 

 topped by a luxuriant ' usurping shoot ' so that the spike appears to be 

 lateral, showing its close affinity with L. laterale, which is still further 

 strengthened by the fact that in that species the spikes are not invariably 

 sessile, but occasionally are developed on very short leafy peduncles." 

 The most obvious point of difference between the two species is the usually 

 prostrate and densely matted habit of L. ramulosum, and, as will be seen 



* See Postcript, p. 216. 



