LYCOPODIUM. 225 



of round, tough, creeping, sparingly leafy stems, bearing 

 numerous other erect stems, which are repeatedly branched 

 in a dichotomous manner, growing erect, from three to six 

 inches high. The colour of the plant is a bright pleasant 

 green. The smaller branches are set more or less closely 

 with the small smooth sessile leaves, whose form is lance- 

 shaped, ending in a point ; they are of a thickish texture, 

 and are rounded off at the back and hollowed out in front 

 where they fit against the stem. On the dichotomous 

 branches, just mentioned, the leaves are closely placed, the 

 lower ones lying over the bases of those next above them, 

 but they are arranged in four tolerably regular lines, so as 

 to give a squarish form to the branches. The little fascicles 

 of branches are for the most part level-topped, those which 

 bear spikes of fructification being longer than the barren 

 ones and twice dichotomous ; the fruit- spikes, which 

 exceed half an inch in length, are rather thicker than 

 the branch. 



The fructification consists of the little spikes just men- 

 tioned, which terminate a portion of the branches, and are 

 erect, close, cylindrical, of a yellowish -green colour, and 

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

 portion below, without any intermediate stalk-like con- 



