COMMON CLUB-MOSS. 121 



are produced in spirals all around the stem, and overlap in 

 the fashion shown to the left of the photograph. Towards 

 the growing points especially it will be seen how these leaves, 

 whatever their point of attachment may be, have a tendency all 

 to turn to the upper side. When viewed from the side this 

 tendency gives the shoots that appearance which has suggested 

 the name of Wolf's- foot. (Plates 129, 132.) 



The erect branches are more slender from the leaves being 

 much reduced in size and pressed closely to the stem, but 

 above they expand again, and form the club the spike of 

 fructification. This, usually referred to as the cone, consists 

 of broad oval or heart-shaped scales, which hold the roundish 

 kidney-shaped capsules. The cones are usually in pairs, 

 sometimes singly, sometimes in threes, of a yellow hue. The 

 capsules are filled with spores which appear like a fine yellow 

 powder the "vegetable brimstone" and " lycopodium "already 

 referred to. They are ripe in July or August. 



This Club-moss has been a good deal used in rustic adornment 

 for merry-makings, and has therefore come in for reference 

 by several of our poets and other writers from Wordsworth 

 downwards, under the name of Foxtail-moss, Staghorn-moss, 

 and so forth. These local names are so numerous that, in a 

 work intended for general and not merely local use, it is out 

 of the question to adopt any of them, and we are driven back 

 to the expressive book-name that stands as the title of this 

 chapter. Foxtail-moss and Staghorn-moss, already mentioned, 

 also appear simply as Foxtail and Staghorn ; others are Buck's- 

 horn, Buck-grass, Creeping Burr, Upright Burr, Forks and 

 Knives, Fox's-claws, Knife and Fork, Lamb's-tail, Running 

 Moss, Robin Hood's Hatband, Tod's-tail, Traveller's Joy, and 

 Wolf's-claws. 



The Latin name is from clava, a club, obviously suggested by 

 the clubbed form of the fruit spike. 



The Common Club-moss is abundant in the North of England 



