1883-84.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club. 137 



introduced to a more civilised state of existence. Yet these sliy 

 and intractable plants can boast of a very ancient ancestry, for their 

 representatives flourished in the " forest primeval " long ages before 

 man was ushered on the scene, and when it could truly be said of 

 the vegetable kingdom that " there were giants in the earth in those 

 days." Of this the Lycojpods furnish an illustration ; for the lowly 

 plant now found trailing along the ground, a mere slender stalk, 

 to the length of a few feet, was then an upright stately tree, reaching 

 occasionally to a height of 100 feet, and measuring twelve feet in cir- 

 cumference at the base of the stem. We have thus an example be- 

 fore us, not of "development," but of its counterpart, " degradation." 

 Our subject, therefore, naturally divides itself into " past " and " pre- 

 sent " : we shall take the latter division first, and say a little con- 

 cerning Lycopods and Selaginellas as these are found now subsisting 

 on the earth. 



Beginning with the Lycopods, — as already remarked, there are but 

 five native species, and some of these, as Lycopodium annotinum, and 

 in particular L. inundatum, are rather difficult to find. The others, 

 however — L. alpinum, L. clavatum, and L. Selago — are more 

 abundant. It is unnecessary to give here a minute description of 

 the distinctive features of each, seeing these may be easily learnt from 

 any standard " Flora," as that of Hooker or Babington. A few re- 

 marks, however, may be made on the mode of growth, structure, and 

 distribution of the Lycopodiaceae. 



All our British Lycopods except L. Selago have creeping stems, 

 and bear their spore-cases singly, in curious terminal spikes of modified 

 leaves. In L. Selago the stem is erect, and the sporangia are borne 

 in the axils of the leaves, and often distributed impartially over the 

 whole stem, though sometimes confined to the upper part of it. In 

 this species bulbUs, or small buds, are also found at the upper part 

 of the stem. The sporangia of Lycopods fulfil a precisely similar 

 function to those of Ferns and Equiseta, for example, in the same 

 class, in giving rise to a prothallium which bears both antheridia and 

 archegonia — this forming the first or sexual generation of the plant. 

 But while the spores of Ferns germinate readily, and the prothallium 

 is borne on the surface of the ground, and has therefore been often 

 investigated, the spores of Lycopods are most difficult to germinate, 

 and the prothallium is underground. It has thus scarcely ever been 

 seen by any one, in spite of the many attempts made to grow it. In 

 1857 Professor De Bary partly succeeded with the prothallium of 

 L. inundatum; and in 1872 Fankhauser found in Switzerland, grow- 

 ing amongst moss, perfect prothallia of L. annotinum. Further than 

 the observations then made, little or nothing is yet known of the 

 development of the embryo. 



The second or asexual generation of the Lycopod is the perfect 

 plant, with root, stem, and branches, developed from the moncecious 



