CRYPTOGAMI4 '217 



well known as Christmas decorations for churches ami 

 houses. 



The Arbor-vitae leaved, or Flat 

 Club-Moss, (Lycopodium complana- 

 tum,} Fig. 211, creeps under the leaves 

 of the woods, now and then sending 

 up erect stems, which are forked, 

 partly naked, and terminated by short 

 yellowish spikes. The leaves are 

 short and acute, two-rowed, connate, 

 or united, and green all the year. 



One of the prettiest species of 

 this genus is the Glittering Club-Moss, 

 (Lycopodium lucidulum.} This grows 

 about four inches high ; leaves in 

 eight rows, linear, lanceolate, acute, 

 and reflected ; stem forked, erect, and 



without a spike, the fruit being contained in a kind of calyx 

 on its side. 



ORDER IV. Musci. Mosses. 



The Mosses are dry herbs, furnished with distinct leaves 

 and stems. They are distinguished from other flowerless 

 plants by the nature of their reproductive parts. These are 

 of two kinds, the principal and most obvious of which, is a 

 thcca, or seed vessel, containing the sporules, or seeds, and 

 furnished with an operculum, or lid, by which they are re- 

 tained, until ripe. The other kind consists of minute spheri- 

 cal bodies, concealed in the axils of the leaves, and called 

 anthers, together with pistillate parts on distinct plants. 



This is a subject of minute and laborious investigation, in 

 which some persons have spent many years. It is impossi- 

 ble, therefore, in a book like this, intended chiefly for ele- 

 mentary instruction, to explain this part of botany in such a 

 manner as to be of any considerable advantage to the pupil. 



The Mosses which belong to this order are found chiefly 

 in moist places, in the woods, and in the sheltered crevices 

 of rocks. Wet, overflown bogs and side hills, with a north- 

 ern exposure, also abound with the different species. The 

 Lichens, on the contrary, are chiefly to be found in dry 

 places, on the sunny sides of rocks or old stone walls, on the 



What are the musci or mosses ? What difference is pointed out vith 

 respect to the places where mosses and lichens grow ? 

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