140 on the fossil flora of the coal deposits of australia, 

 Lycopodium. 



Stems leafy, bard, branching, creeping, prostrate or erect. 

 Leaves small, entire, or minutely serrate, inserted all round the 

 stem, usually in four rows. Spore-cases all of one kind, flattened, 

 one-celled, two-valved, sessile in the axils of the upper leaves, or 

 of bracts usually smaller or broader than the stem leaves, and 

 forming terminal or lateral spikes. Spores all minute and 

 powdery. 



The genus is widely spread over every part of the globe. Of the 

 eleven Australian species three are generally distributed in the 

 New and in the Old World, the seven others are in New Zealand, 

 five of them extending to the Pacific Islands, and two to South 

 America. 



There are seven fossil species, and if we include the Lycopodites, 

 which are, however, plants of uncertain position, three more must 

 be added to the list. Of the seven fossil species, six belong to the 

 coal formation, and the seventh, about which there is some doubt, 

 comes from the middle Jurassic. Amongst living Lycopodiacea3 a 

 distinction is made between those which have the spore cases and 

 spores all of one kind (Lycopodium) and those in which they are 

 of two kinds (Selaginella). The plants of the latter genus are 

 moreover smaller and weaker than Lycopodium, and have 

 distichous lanceolate leaves. 



With reference to the fossil species of Lycopodium, Schimper 

 says (op. cit. vol. 2, p. 7) that under the name of Lycopodites, and 

 Selaginites the most heterogeneous plants have been described, such 

 as the branches of Knorria, Lejndodendra, conifers and the rhizo- 

 mes of young fronds of Ferns. For this there is an excuse as some 

 of the rhizomes of Ferns which grow above ground are divided by 

 dichotomy, and covered with leaf-like hairs or scales, and they 

 resemble certain species of Lycopodium, especially when they are 

 preserved as impressions on clay. Moreover, many conifers have 

 a pinnate ramification very similar in appearance to those of 

 Selaginella and Lycopodium. But Schimper adds that certain 

 marks will always enable us to detect the differences. Whenever 



