Lycopodales.] 



LYCOPODIACE.E. 



69 



Order XXL— LYCOPODIACE^.— Clubmosses. 



Lycopodineae, Stvartz Spnopsts Filicum (1806) ; R. Brown Prodr. 164. (1810) ; Agardh Ai)h. 112. 

 (1822) ; Greville Flor. Edin. xii. (1824) ; Martins Ic. jd. crypt. 37. (1834).— Lycopodiacese, DC. 

 Fl. Fr. 2. 257. (1815) ; Ad. Brongn. in Diet. Class. 9. 561. (1826) ; Link. Filic. Sp. 155; Endl. 

 Gen. xxxvi. 



Diagnosis. — LycojiodalAcrogens, with l-3-ceUed axillary spore-cases, and the reproductive 

 bodies all of the sarae nature. 



Usually moss-like plants, with creeping stems and imbricated leaves, the axis consist- 

 ing of one solid cord of annular vessels, or of a reticulated column of such vessels inter- 

 sected by cellular tissue ; or stemless plants, ^^'ith erect subulate leaves, and a solid 

 corm. Spore-cases 1-3-celled, axillary, sessile, either bursting by distinct valves, or 



mdehiscent, and containing either minute 

 powdery matter, or sporules, marked at the 

 apex with three minute radiatuig elevated 

 ridges upon theu- proper integument, or irre- 

 gularly tuberculated. 



Intermediate as it were between Ferns and 

 Coniferse on the one hand, and Ferns and 

 Mosses on the other ; related to the first of 

 those tribes in the want of sexual apparatus, 

 and in the abundance of annular ducts con- 

 tained in their axis ; to the second in the 

 aspect of the stems of some of the larger kinds ; 

 and to the last in their whole appearance, 

 Lycopodiacese are distinctly characterised by 

 their organs of reproduction. These are gene- 

 rally considered to be of two kinds, both of 

 which are axillary and sessile, and have from 

 1 to 3 regularly dehiscing valves, the one con- 

 taining a powdery substance, the other bodies 

 much larger in size, which have been seen to 

 germinate. In confonnity with the theory 

 that all plants have sexes, the advocates of 

 that doctrine have found anthers in the fonner, 

 and pistils in the latter ; but, as in other similar 

 cases, this opinion is entirely conjectural, and founded upon no direct e\-idence : all that 

 we really know is, that the larger bodies do germinate, and, if we are to credit Wilde- 

 now, the powdery particles grow also. He says he has seen them. I think it is hardly 

 to be doubted that the latter are the abortive state of the former. Link, hoAvever, takes 

 quite a different view of the matter, and 

 regards the larger bodies as Antheridia, 

 while the smaller he calls spores. (Ansf/etv. 

 Anat. Bot. Ahhild.fasc. 4. t. 4.) Accord- 

 ing to SaHsbury, in the Linnean Tran- 

 sactions, vol. 12. tab. 19, Lycopodivun 

 denticulatum emits two cotyledons upon 

 germinating ; but, supposmg this observa- 

 tion, which requires confirmation, to be 

 exact, it is much more probable that the 

 two Httle scales so emitted are primordial 

 leaves than analogous to cotyledons. The 

 genus PhyUoglossum is remarkable for hav- 

 ing the foliage, and mode of growth of 

 Isoetes combuaed with the fructification of a L ycopodium, and offers a strong argumen t 



Fig. XLVI.-l. Bernhardia dichotoma ; 2. its spore-case ; 3. the same, cut across; 4. Lycopodium 

 annotinum ; 5. its spore-case, with the scale to which it is axillary. 



Fig. XLVII.— 1. Spore-case of Lycopodium denticulatum opened; 2. antheridmm; 3. spore.— Xin/i. 



Fig. XLVI. 



GIvphoffr.pK,, 



Fig. XLVII. 



