CHAP. IV.] LYCOPODINE^. 463 



flowering Fern {Osmunda regalis) ; but others 

 are — the Grape Fern or Moonwort {Botrychium) ^ 

 a species of which, a native of North America, is 

 called there the Rattle-snake Fern ; and the 

 Adder's Tongue (Opliiglossum) . The Tree Ferns 

 of New Zealand are magnificent plants. The 

 trunk or stipe rises to the height of forty or 

 fifty feet without a branch, and then terminates 

 in a head of noble fronds, which hang down on 

 every side like a plume of feathers. The wood 

 of these trees when cut across, instead of being 

 in circles like the wood of Dicotyledonous trees, 

 or full of pores like that of the Endogens, is 

 marked with a number of zigzag lines, the traces 

 of the stalks of old fronds which have grown 

 together and formed the stipe. 



ORDER CCXII LYCOPODINE^.— THE CLUB-MOSS 



TRIBE. 



These plants appear to occupy the interme- 

 diate space between the Ferns and the Mosses. 

 They have creeping stems, and grow two or 

 three feet high ; the erect stems being clothed 

 with imbricated leaves, in the axils of which 

 these are produced. Some of them open into 

 three or four valves, and contain sporules ; 

 while others are only two-valved, and contain a 

 kind of powder, which some suppose to be 



