54 



rank luxuriance the surrounding trees and shrubs of the 

 forest. The British representatives of the class are com- 

 paratively small plants, with the exception, perhaps, of 

 the commonest species (Lycopodium clavatum, Fig. 4), 

 which creeps along the ground among the heather on the 

 moorlands, and sends out runners or creeping stems in 

 all directions to the length of several yards, which take a 

 firm hold of the soil by means of long, tough, wiry roots 



Fia. 4. 

 LYCOPODICM 

 CLAVATUM. 



FIG. ti. 

 LYCOPODIUM 



ALPINUM. 



on their under -surface. The smallest species is the 

 marsh club-moss (Lycopodium inundatum), which grows 

 upright in little tufts at the edge of streamlets, or in 

 marshy hollows among the hills, where it is almost 

 wholly concealed by the surrounding bog-mosses. In this 

 country, the lycopods are all alpine or sub-alpine; one 

 species (Fig. 5) ascending to the highest summits of the 

 British mountains, where it grows in large rigid tufts amid 

 the debris of rocks, and another (Fig. 6) trailing in long 

 wreaths over the bare mossy shoulders of the Highland 



