FERN ALLIES. 55 



that splendid botanical ground in its natural state. The 

 leaves are long and pointed, with two sharp shoulders 

 and a broad base ; the cone is very large in proportion to 

 the rest of the plant. 



Our specimens of the Lesser Alpine Club-moss (L. 

 Selaginoides) were sent to us from Blair- Athole ; we have 

 none of us found it ourselves. It is more slender than 

 the March species, but much more branched, and its general 

 aspect is more like that of a real moss than one of the 

 sturdy Lycopods. But if it seems slight and frail com- 

 pared with the long tough stems of the Common species, 

 and the sturdy bushes of the mimic fir-tree, how much 

 more startling is the contrast with its giant ancestors of 

 the coal measures, the Lepidodendra, which Hugh Miller 

 describes as " great plants of the Club-moss type, that 

 rose from fifty to seventy feet in height." A valuable 

 homoeopathic medicine is prepared from the Lycopodium. 



The Spanish moss which forms beds of such intense 

 and exquisite greenness in the conservatories at Kew, is 

 a Lycopod, and other species there to be seen, delicately 

 tinted with rose colour, or blue, belong to this family. 



This group of fern allies completes the first section of 

 the great tribe of Flowerless Plants ; these, together with 

 the mosses and their allies, the Scale mosses or Liver- 

 worts, belong to the first or foliaceous division of Crypto- 

 gams ; while the Seaweeds, Lichens, and Fungi form the 

 Aphyllous or leafless division. 



