164 LYCOPODIACEA 
given from the resemblance of its branches, with the leaves pressed closely 
around them, to those of the savin (Juntperus sabina). 'The roots are very 
strong and wiry, and are formed of branched, downy, stout fibres. The 
stem creeps close to the surface of the ground, and bears, at irregular 
intervals, several upright branches, which are repeatedly divided in a forked 
manner, forming a close tuft, level at the top, and somewhat fan-shaped. 
These are shorter than in LZ. complanatum, not flattened, and the leaves are 
all of one kind. These are lanceolate and pointed, the edges without serra- 
tures, and they are somewhat boat-shaped, being hollowed out in front where 
they fit the stem. The leaves overlap each other, and are in four rows, the 
branches having a somewhat square form. Those branches bearing the spikes 
of fructification are rather longer than the barren ones, and twice forked. 
The spikes as a rule are solitary, and have no distinct stalk. The scales are 
membranaceous, flat, broad at the base, tapering upwards and pointed, and 
placed very closely together. Between each scale and the stem lies a pale 
yellow, kidney-shaped capsule, filled with minute, yellowish spores. When 
these are dispersed the scales turn downwards, and the spike bends down 
into a semicircular form. This plant is said, by Sir W. J. Hooker, to be 
used in several countries to dye woollen cloths of a yellow colour. In 
Ireland, cloth is commonly dyed by boiling it with the Lycopodium, and 
with the leaves of the bog whortleberry. The flavour of this Savin-leaved 
Moss is bitter and somewhat aromatic. 
5. Marsh Club-moss (ZL. inunddétum). — Stem creeping; branches 
simple; leaves and scales linear, acute, curved upwards; spikes solitary. 
Though this plant is rare in Scotland, and the midland and northern counties 
of England, it is less so in the south, though always local. In Ireland it is 
very rare. It may be often seen on moist heathy moors, especially where 
the surface has been pared for turf-growing, amid gorse and broom, not 
usually forming a mossy tract of wide extent, but occurring here and there, 
in patches, all over the bog. It is not so conspicuous a plant as to be noticed 
by many except botanists. Its habit is prostrate—the stem, which is two 
or three inches long, being closely pressed to the surface of the soil, and 
attached to it by a few short, but stout, tough, and branched fibres. The 
branches are simple, the barren ones lying along the ground; the fertile 
ones upright. All parts of the plant are thickly covered with narrow leaves 
without serratures, but acutely pointed; those leaves which are on the 
barren stems all curving upwards. This plant, during the period of its 
growth, lengthens at the point, the other end gradually decaying. The 
winter, which stops the growth, does not arrest the decay, so that little is 
left of the stem to produce the next year’s foliage, while the withered remains 
of summer look like a number of black marks or lines among the short grass 
of the heath in spring, resembling a plant which has been scorched and 
blackened by fire. The green portion of the Club-Moss is very small at this 
season, for many plants perish wholly in the winter, and it is only the 
vigorous ones which may now be seen putting forth their new leaves. The 
spikes of fructification are produced in autumn, each being at the top of a 
footstalk rather longer than itself, and nearly of the same thickness; and, 
as well as the spike, being surrounded by green linear scales rather larger at 
