LTCOl'ODJACE^E. (CLUB-MOSS FAJIILT.) 603 



2. £-. Selsigo, L. Stems thick and rigid, erect, fork-branched, forming a 

 level topped cluster (3' -6' high) ; leaves spreading, lanceolate, pointed, entire. — 

 Tops of high mountains, Maine to New York, on the Alleghanies southward ; 

 also shore of Lake Superior, and northward ; rare : both the variety with moro 

 erect, and that with widely spreading, leaves. (Eu.) 



§ 2. Sporangia borne only in the axils of the upper (bracteal) leaves, thus forming 



terminal spikes or catkins. 



* Leaves of the creeping sterile and the upright fertile stems or branches, and those of 



the simple spike all alike, many-ranked (sporangia opening near the base). 



3. JLm illtllldatlim, L. Dwarf; creeping sterile stems forking, flaccid ; 

 the fertile solitary (l'-4' high), bearing a short thick spike; leaves lanceolate or 

 lance-awl-shaped, acute, soft, spreading, naked, or sometimes bearing a few minute 

 spiny teeth. — Leaves (curving upwards on the prostrate shoots) narrower in the 

 American than in the European plant (perhaps a distinct species), and passing 

 into the var. Bigel6vii, Tuekerm. : with fertile stems 5' -7' high, its leaves 

 more awl-shaped and pointed, sparser and more upright, often somewhat teeth- 

 bearing. (L. Carolinianum, Bigel., not of L.) — Sandy bogs, northward, rare: 

 the var. from New England to New Jersey and southward, near the coast. 

 Aug. (Eu.) 



4. Yi. alopeciiroides, L. Stems stout, very densely leafy throughout ; 

 the sterile branches recurved-proeumbent and creeping; the fertile of the same 

 thickness, 6' -20' high ; leaves narrowly linear-awl-shaped, spinulose-pointed, spread- 

 ing, conspicuously bristle-toothed below the middle ; those of the cylindrical spike with 

 long setaceous tips. — Pine-barren swamps, New Jersey to Virginia, and south- 

 ward. Aug., Sept. — Stems, with the dense leaves, J' thick ; the comose spike, 

 with its longer spreading leaves, f to I' thick. 



* # Leaves (bracts) of the catkin-like spike scale-like, imbricated, yellowish, ovale en 



heart-shaped, very different from those of the sterile stems and branches. 



-i- Spikes sessile (branches equally leafy to the top), single. 



i 



5. It. misiotisilllll, L. Much branched; stems prostrate and creeping 



(l°-4° long) ; the ascending branches similar (5'- 8' high), sparingly forked, the 

 sterile ones making yearly growths from the summit ; leaves equal, spreading, in 

 about 5 ranks, rigid, lanceolate, pointed, minutely serrulate (pale green) ; spike 

 solitary, oblong-cylindrical, thick. — Var. pungens, Spring, is a reduced sub- 

 alpine or mountain form, with shorter and more rigid-pointed erectish leaves. 

 (Var. montanum, Tuekerm.) — Woods; common northward: the var. on the 

 White Mountains, with intermediate forms around the base. July. (Eu.) 



6. 1L. deildroideiian, Michx. (Ground-Pine.) Stems upright (6'- 

 9' high) from a subterranean creeping rootstock, simple below, and clothed with 

 homogeneous lanceolate-linear acute entire leaves apprcssed-erect in 4 - 6 rows, 

 bushy -branched at the summit ; the crowded branches spreading, fan-like, with the 

 lower row of leaves shorter and the lateral spreading, — in var. obscukum 

 appearing flat, from the leaves of the upper side being also shorter and ap- 

 pressed. (L. obscurum, L.) — Moist woods. Aug. — Remarkable for its tree- 

 like growth. Spikes cylindrical, 4-10 on each plant. 



