i 3 4 ANCIENT PLANTS 



Let us turn at once to this halcyon period of the 

 group. The history of the times intervening between 

 it and the present is but the tale of the dying out of the 

 large species, and the gradual shrinking of the family 

 and dwarfing of its representative genera. 



It is difficult to give the characters of a scientific 

 family in a few simple words; but perhaps we may 

 describe the living Lycopods as plants with creeping 

 stems which divide and subdivide into two with great 

 regularity, and which bear large numbers of very small 

 pointed leaves closely arranged round the stem. The 

 fruiting organs come at the tips of the branches, and 

 sometimes themselves divide into two, and in these 

 cone-like axes the spore cases are arranged, a single 

 one on the upper side of each of the scales (see p. 67, 

 fig. 46, A). In the Lycopods the spores are all alike, in 

 the Selaginellas there are larger spores borne in a small 

 number (four) in some sporangia (see fig. 53, p. 75), and 

 others in large numbers and of smaller size on the scales 

 above them. The stems are all very slender, and have 

 no zones of secondary wood. They generally creep or 

 climb, and from them are put out long structures some- 

 thing like roots in appearance, which are specially modi- 

 fied stem-like organs giving rise to roots. 



From the fossils of the Coal Measures Lepidodendron 

 must be chosen as the example for comparison. The 

 different species of this genus are very numerous, and 

 the various fossilized remains of it are among the com- 

 monest and best known of palaeontological specimens. 

 The huge stems are objects of public interest, and have 

 been preserved in the Victoria Park in Glasgow in their 

 original position in the rocks, apparently as they grew 

 with their spreading rootlike organs running horizon- 

 tally. A great stump is also preserved in the Man- 

 chester Museum, and is figured in the frontispiece. 

 While among the casts and impressions the leaf bases 

 of the plant are among the best preserved and the most 

 beautiful (see fig. 93). The cone has already been illus- 



