514 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



close proximity, so that the antherozoids can easily pass to the archegones 

 by the aid of the moisture that condenses upon the prothallium. The 

 sexual organs and their contents are very similar to those of the ferns. 

 After fertilization of the oosperm and formation of the embryo, minute 

 stems are produced, differing in little except stature from the mature stems, 

 and an underground perennial rhizome is also developed. In some species 



\E. Step. 



Fia. 656. FIELD HORSETAIL (Equisetum arvense). 



Fertile stems bearing the cones, which appear in advance of the much taller and branched barren stems. 

 The latter are shown in Fig. 657 on the opposite page. 



there is a vegetative propagation by the formation of tubers on the rhizome 

 and the bases of the stems, in which starch, etc., is stored. 



The Class Lycopodinse consists of the Orders Lycopodiacese and Selagi- 

 nellacese. In the former the typical genus Lycopodium is represented in 

 Britain by five species of Club Mosses, so-called because in some species 

 the sporophylls are crowded together on special erect branches which, from 

 being stouter than the stem immediately below them, have a club-like 



