100 BRITISH FERNS. 



The Savin-leaved Club-moss is a bitter plant, with a 

 somewhat aromatic flavour, and possesses emetic properties ; 

 it is, however, seldom applied to any use. According to Sir 

 "W. J. Hooker, it is used in Iceland as a dye for woollen 

 cloths, to which it gives a pale and pleasing but not brilliant 

 yellow. The process is simply that of boiling the cloth in 

 water, along with a quantity of the Lycopodiwn, and some 

 leaves of the Bog Whortleberry. 



THE PEICKLY MOUNTAIN MOSS. 



This is the Selagindla spinosa of scientific botanists, 

 though it is probably more generally known by the name of 

 Lycopodium selaginoides, which it formerly bore. It has a 

 slender, procumbent, often branched stem, the barren 

 branches short and wavy, the fertile ones ascending or erect, 

 and from two to three inches high. They are clothed with 

 lance-shaped leaves, of a delicate texture, jagged along the 

 margins with spiny teeth ; those on the decumbent stems 

 being shorter, as well as more distant and spreading, than 

 those of the fertile branches. 



The inflorescence, as in the other species, is a terminal 

 spike of about an inch in length, consisting of lance-shaped 

 jagged-edged bracts, larger and more closely pressed than the 

 leaves of the stem. These bracts protect two kinds of fruc- 

 tification ; the lower ones bear in their axils large three- 

 celled spore-cases containing three globular oophoridia, and 

 the upper ones bear subreniform spore-cases, containing the 

 minute pulverulent pollen-like spores. This is the only 

 native Lycopod which produces the two separate kinds of 

 spores. 



Though hardly to be considered rare, this is one of the less 

 common species. It is found in the north of England, 

 Wales, and Scotland, in which latter country it is pretty 

 generally distributed. In Ireland it is rather common. The 

 localities which it prefers are wet boggy places by the side 

 of mountain rills. 



The Lycopodiums are not frequently seen, in cultivation, 

 but they nevertheless, equally with the Ferns, would be- 

 come a source of much interest if brought constantly under 

 the eye in a living state ; and in an equal degree the study 

 of them in this condition- -the watching of their progress 

 and development day ny day would contribute to a 

 thorough knowledge of them and their differences. 



A small Wardian case, a northern aspect, a few blocks of 



