LYCOPODIUM. 197 



found to be somewhat recumbent, 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 imbri- 

 cated 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 stem ; while in plants developed in more 

 confined and humid situations they are longer, less rigid, 

 and more spreading. 



The fructification is in this species not borne in terminal 

 spikes as in the other kinds, but is produced in the axils of 

 the leaves along the upper branches of the stem. The spore- 

 cases are rather large, sessile, kidney-shaped, two-valved, and 

 filled with minute pale yellow sporules. 



Besides the ordinary sporules, the plant is furnished with 

 other means of propagation in the shape of deciduous buds, 

 produced for the most part in the axils of the leaves, about 

 the apices of the branches. These buds separate spontane- 

 ously, fall to the ground, and there vegetate, first producing 

 roots, and then elongating into a leafy stem. They are 



