FIR CLUB-MOSS. 125 



Marsh Club-moss is the only English name, and that has 

 apparently been bestowed by modern botanists. The Latin 

 name inundatum indicates an overflow or deluge, and refers 

 to the fact that this species prefers lands that are flooded in 

 winter. 



Fir Club-moss (Lycopodiitm selago). ' 

 There can be no questioning the fitness of the English name 

 for this plant, for though it scarcely suggests a miniature fir- 

 tree, as many writers have suggested, yet it does resemble 

 a coniferous seedling of some sort, or a shoot of a fir-tree. 

 The Fir Club-moss differs from the other species in the fact 

 that it has no creeping stem, though at the base the upright 

 stem is bent. Another difference will be noted in the absence 

 of cones. (Plates 136-138.) 



Immediately the stem leaves the ground it begins to fork, 

 and the divisions fork again and again until the plant assumes 

 a fan-like form, all the branches taking an upward direction 

 and reaching the same level. Stem and branches are all stout 

 and rigid. They may be seven or eight inches high and over 

 half an inch in diameter, densely clothed with dark-green, 

 narrow, lance-shaped leaves which end in awl-shaped tips. 

 The younger of these leaves overlap the youngest, but the 

 older ones spread away from the stem. Close examination will 

 show that the leaves are attached to the stem in eight rows. 

 The upper leaves are somewhat broader based and bear upon 

 their surface the kidney-shaped spore capsules, which are ripe 

 from June to August. They may be seen in situ in our 

 photograph (Plate 138). 



In the summer of 1906 we found in the Pass of Llanberis, 

 near Gorphwysfa, an early stage of this species. It was a 

 dwarf plant consisting of four short horizontal, forked stems, with 

 long, laterally spreading leaves of a dark-green tint. Thinking it 



