600 LYCOrOmACE^E. (club-moss family.) 



Order 1G3. LYCOPODIACEiE. (Club-Moss Family.) 



Perennial plants, -with solid branching and mostly creeping stems, 

 sparingly or thickly clothed with small, simple, sessile, awl-shaped or linear 

 leaves. Fructification consisting of 1 — 8-celled solitary spore-cases, ax- 

 illary, either along the main stem, or only in the axils of the upper and 

 mostly changed (bract-like) leaves. 



1. LYCOPODIUM, L. Club-Moss. 



Sporangia of one kind, coriaceous, commonly kidney-shaped, opening trans- 

 versely into two valves and containing minute powdery spores. Perennial, 

 mostly evergreen plants ; the leaves imbricated in several or many rows along 

 the stem and branches. 



§ 1. Sporangia borne along the stem, in the arils of uniform leaves. 



1. L. lucidulum, Michx. Stems ascending, forking, some what com- 

 pressed ; leaves (deep green) in several rows, linear-lanceolate, very acute, spar- 

 ingly denticulate, spreading or reflexed. — Shady woods on the mountains of 

 North Carolina, and northward. — Stem 6'- 12' long. Leaves glossy. 



2. L. SelagO, L*. Stems short and thick, terete, clustered, erect or ascend- 

 ing, forking ; leaves in several rows, deep preen, lanceolate, acute, entire, the 

 npper erect, the lower spreading. — High mountains of North Carolina, and 

 northward. — Stems 3'-6' high, rigid. Leaves crowded. 



§ 2. Sporangia in the axils of the ripper leaves, forming a terminal terete bracted spike. 

 * Bracteal and stem leaves alike, spreading. 



3. L. alopecuroides, L. Stem thick, terete, forking near the base, re- 

 curved, and rooting at the apex, very leafy ; leaves in many rows, spreading, 

 subulate, bristly-fringed below the middle; peduncles erect, 6' - 12' high, similar 

 to the stem; spike thick, cylindrical, bristly from the spreading or recurved 

 bracteal leaves' — Open pine-barren swamps, Florida to Mississippi, and north- 

 ward. — Stems 1°- 1|° long, pale preen. 



4. L. inundatum, L. var. pinnatum. Stem rather slender, prostrate, 

 creeping, pinnately branched ; leaves linear-subulate, bristly-fringed below the 

 middle, unequal, the upper and lower ones shorter and somewhat appressed, the 

 lateral ones widely spreading; peduncle mostly solitary, erect, (1° high), very 



leafy; spike thick, cylindrical, 2'-3' long. — Low pine barrens, near the coast. 

 West Florida. — Stem 6'- 15' long, and, with the spreading haves, \' wide. 

 * * Bracteal leaves wider than those of the stem. 

 -»- Jjiu-is of the stem equal and alike. 



5. L. clavatum, L. Stem very long, terete, creeping, with numerous 

 short and erect leafy branches ; peduncles with scattered leaves, each bearing 2- 



3 linear-cylindrical spikes; leaves in several rows, subulate, entire, incurved, 



pointed, like the ovate erosely-denticnlate bracts, with a spreading bristle. — 

 Mountains of North Carolina, and northward. — Peduncles 4'-6' long. 



