06 BRITISH PERNS. 



swollen on the outside, protrudes from its inner margin five 

 smaller lanceolate leaves or teeth, the whole being elevated 

 on a short hardened footstalk. Within this is a whorl of 

 five parts representing a gemma or bud ; the three inner 

 lobes of this series are large and prominent, and of an ovate 

 oblong acute form ; the two outer lobes are very small, scale- 

 like, one closely appressed to the anterior, the other to the 

 posterior surface of the bud. In the centre of the three 

 inner lobes, in due time, appears a thickish oblong body, 

 which is in reality the undeveloped stem, and eventually 

 elongates, puts out small leaflets, and becomes a plant. 



These buds are capable of growth either while attached to 

 their parent stem or when detached and in contact with the 

 soil ; and they appear to be the chief means of propagation 

 possessed by this species, for the statements which have 

 been made respecting the germination of the spores of the 

 Fir Club-moss are open to much doubt. Probably it was 

 these buds which were caused to germinate. 



There is no doubt this plant possesses some medicinal 

 properties, though it is not now used in regular practice. It 

 is powerfully irritant, and is used by country-people, in the 

 form of an ointment, as a counter-irritant in parts near the 

 eye, for diseases of that organ ; it appears to be also some- 

 times employed as an emetic and cathartic, but not without 

 danger. A decoction is, on the authority of Linnaeus, used 

 in Sweden to destroy vermin on cattle. It is also employed 

 for dyeing, and to fix the colour of woollen cloths. 



THE INTERRUPTED CLUB-MOSS. 



The Lycppodium, annotinum of botanists. A very distinct 

 plant, easily recognised by the interrupted leafing of its 

 stems, the leaves being at distant intervals much diminished 

 in size and less spreading in their direction, these points in- 

 dicating where the annual growths have commenced and 

 terminated. It is known by its narrow leaves spreading out 

 from the stem on all sides, and arranged in five indistinct 

 rows. It is a large-growing species, often a foot high, with 

 irregularly branched stems, which, after they have produced 

 fruit-spikes, or have reached an equivalent age, become de- 

 pressed, rooting and throwing up another series of upright 

 branches. The annual increase of the stems is well marked 

 by the closer-pressed and shorter leaves which occur at the 

 upper part of each growth, and this is what gives the inter- 

 rupted appearance to the stems. The leaves, which do not 

 decay for several years, are linear-lanceolate in form, and 



