HoLLOWAT. — Studies in the New Zealand Species of Lycopodium. 259 



it shows still greater luxuriance in the neighbourhood of hot-water 

 streams. L. scariosum and L. fastigiatum frequently occur in moun- 

 tain areas of both Islands, on hillsides from which the forest has retreated 

 owing to climatic changes or to the hand of man, but the latter species 

 is also a common plant of subalpine southern -beech forests. The two 

 epiphytic species very readily adopt a terrestrial habit both on the 

 forest-floor and also in more open situations in which the conditions are 

 practically epiphytic. In Westland L. voluhile and L. scariosum are 

 very common on the heaps of tailings around abandoned alluvial gold- 

 mining claims, and the endemic L. ramulosmn is abundant in the man- 

 induced Sphagnum bogs in the same localities. 



II. Occurrence of Prothalli and Young Plants. 

 L. Billardieri. 



Prothalli and young plants associated together were found in two 

 different localities, and young plants alone in two others. On one 

 occasion a large number of young plants were found growing at the 

 top of a nikau palm in the Waikumete Bush, Auckland, in a mass of 

 humu.s through which the stems and roots of the adult plants were ramify- 

 ing. One or two old prothalli attached to well-grown young plants were 

 obtained in this case. On another occasion twelve prothalli were ob- 

 tained in the month of Januarj^ in the forest at Pipiriki, Wanganui 

 River, from a mass of humus in the fork of a tree. Here, also, old 

 plants were present. Of these prothalli, seven were without young plants 

 attached, and five bore young plants in different stages of development. 

 The prothallus of this species grows completely buried in the humus. 

 Tlie prothalli are easily seen, by reason of their whitish appearance, in 

 the midst of the dark humus when the latter is dissected in water, but 

 may be mistaken for a mass of young root-tips.* 



L, laterale. 



Young plants and prothalli of this species were discovei'ed by mc 

 in three different localities on the Auckland Isthmus during the summers 

 of 1905 and 1914. In two cases they were growing on patches of peaty 

 humus which had been overturned by gum-diggers, and occurred close 

 to the edge of boggy ground in the immediate vicinity of adult plants. 

 In the third case they were growing fairly abundantly on a patch of 

 damjD soil, which was sparsely covered with short moss, in the midst of a 

 clump of mature plants. Altogether eight prothalli were found, as also 

 were many young plants in all stages of development. Diligent search 

 was made in several localities in the Mongonuif County, North Auckland, 

 on the ojaen hillsides where this species' grows luxuriantly, but in no case 

 were the young plants seen. I adopted the plan of cutting out small turves 

 of the soil in which A^oung plants could be seen, and reserving them 

 for examination under a dissecting microscope. The process of exami- 

 nation proved exceedingly tedious, for the peaty humus was closely inter- 



* I have found also the young plants of L. Billardieri var. gracile growing on 

 the trunk of a tree-fern near Lake Kanieri, Westland. The distinguishing 

 characters of this variety are its small, slender form, almost unaltered character of 

 the fertile leaves, and the fact that the fertile regions are not confined to the ends 

 of the branches. 



t This is the official spelling of the name of the county according to the 

 Counties Act of 1908, although the correct spelling is Mangonui. 



9* 



