216 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



fertile stems to the claw of some animal, as of the wolf. 

 Hence one species, and that which probably suggested the 

 name, has been called Wolfs- claw. 



lycopodium Selago, Linnwus. 



Fir Club-moss. (Plate XX. fig. 5.) 



The Fir Club-moss is one of our commoner and stouter 

 kinds. It is usually of upright growth, the others being 

 decumbent ; though of this there is a variety, or mountain 

 form, sometimes met with, in which the stems are con- 

 stantly prostrate. Indeed, in the commoner forms the 

 upright habit, which is evidently natural to it, often gives 

 way before the force of gravity, and in such cases the 

 lower part of the stems is found to be somewhat recum- 

 bent, while the upper parts retain their upright position. 

 The stems vary from three or four to six or eight inches 

 high, and are branched two or three times in a two-forked 

 manner ; they are stout, tough, rigid, nearly level-topped, 

 and thickly clothed with imbricated leaves arranged in 

 eight rows. These leaves are lance-shaped and acute, of a 

 shining green, rigid and leathery in texture, and smooth 

 on the margin ; in plants which have grown in exposed 

 places, they are shorter and more closely pressed to the 



