CLUB MOSSES. 



28 5 



580. Fruiting spike of Lycopodium clavatum. This club is 

 the fruiting spike or head (sometimes termed a slrobilus). Here 

 the leaves are larger again and broader, but still not so large as 

 the leaves on the creeping shoots, and they are paler. If we bend 

 down some of the leaves, or tear off a few, we see that in the 

 axil of the leaf, where it joins the stem, there is a somewhat 

 rounded, kidney-shaped body. This is the spore-case or spo- 

 rangium, as we can see by an examination of its contents. There 

 is but a single spore-case for each of the fertile leaves (sporophyll). 

 When it is mature, it opens by a crosswise slit as seen in fig. 326. 

 When we consider the number of spore-cases in one of these club- 

 shaped fruit bodies we see that the number of spores developed 

 in a large plant is immense. In mass the spores make a very fine, 

 soft powder, which is used for some 

 kinds of pyrotechnic material, and for 

 various toilet purposes. 



581. Lycopodium lucidulum. Another com- 

 mon species is figured at 327. This is Lycopo- 

 dium lucidulum. The habit of the plant is quite 

 different. It grows in damp ravines, woods, and 

 moors. The older parts of the stem are prostrate, 

 while the branches are more or less ascending. 

 It branches in a forked manner. The leaves are 

 larger than in the former species, and they are 

 all of the same size, there being no appreciable 

 difference between the sterile and 

 fertile ones. The characteristic 

 club is not present here, but the 

 spore-cases occupy certain regions of 

 the stem, as shown at 327. In a 

 single season one region of the stem 

 may bear spore-cases, and then a 

 sterile portion of the same stem is 

 Lycopodium lucidufum^bulbils in axils of developed, which later bears another 

 leaves near the top, sporangia in axils of leaves series of spore-cases higher up. 

 below them. At right is a bulbil enlarged. 



582. Bulbils on Lycopodium 



lucidulum. There is one curious way in which this club moss multiplies. 

 One may see frequently among the upper leaves small wedge-shaped or heart- 

 shaped green bodies but little larger than the ordinary leaves. These are little 



