THE BRITISH CLUB-MOSSES. 99 



small portion only remains over to produce new foliage the 

 following season. 



The spike of fructification, which is produced towards 

 autumn, is seated at the top of an erect branch, clothed 

 throughout with leaves of the same shape as those on the 

 horizontal stems ; the branch and the spike nearly of equal 

 thickness throughout, the spike about an inch long, the 

 branch rather more. The spike is green, and is formed of 

 narrow linear-lanceolate bracts, rather dilated at the base, 

 and sometimes having one or two shallow teeth on each side. 

 The spore-cases are in the axils of these bracts. 



THE SAVIN-LEAVED CLUB-MOSS. 



This, the Lycopodium alpinwn of botanical writers, gets 

 its trivial name from the resemblance between its branches 

 clothed with the closely-pressed leaves, and those of the 

 Savin, Juniperus Sabina. It is a pretty little evergreen 

 plant, forming thick wide-spreading patches of round, tough, 

 creeping, sparingly leafy stems, bearing numerous other erect 

 stems, which are repeatedly fork-branched, growing erect, 

 from three to six inches high. The branches are set with 

 small smooth sessile leaves, whose form is lance-shaped, 

 ending in a point ; and on the lower ones these leaves are 

 more closely placed, but arranged in four tolerably regular 

 lines, so as to give a squarish form to the branches. The 

 little tufts of branches are for the most part level-topped, 

 those which bear spikes of fructification being however 

 longer than the barren ones. 



The fructifications consist of little spikes, terminating a 

 portion of the branches, erect, close, cylindrical, yellowish- 

 green, and sessile on the branches, that is, joined to the leafy 

 ertion below, without any intermediate stalk-like part. 

 ie spike consists of a number of bracts closely packed 

 together, each having in its axil a capsule containing nume- 

 rous minute pale yellowish spores. The bracts become re- 

 flexed after the spores have been dispersed. The plants are 

 firmly fixed to the soil, by means of tough strong wiry 

 branched roots, produced at intervals along the prostrate 

 stems. 



The head-quarters of this species is in elevated moun- 

 tainous tracts. It occurs very abundantly in Scotland and 

 Wales ; in the northern isles ; on the hills of the north, and 

 extending into the south-west of England. It is less com- 

 mon in Ireland. It also occurs throughout the Alpine dis* 

 tricts of Europe and Northern Asia. 



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