224 HISTOIIY or BRITISH TEENS. 



the spore-cases, attached to peltate scales, arranged in 

 crowded whorls, the cones being rather more than an inch 

 long, tapering somewhat above and below, and terminating 

 in a blunt point. Below this is a bare portion of the stem, 

 seldom less than an inch in length in fully developed speci- 

 mens, but sometimes measuring as much as two inches. 

 The peltate scales are arranged in whorls around the axis of 

 the cone, as is the case generally in this family. The scales 

 in one of these cones, according to Mr. Newman's computa- 

 tion, vary in number from one hundred to two hundred and 

 fifty. At a right angle with their margin are ranged the 

 spore-cases, four to seven in number, oblong, membranous, 

 parallel, white cells, bursting finally into two longitudinal 

 valves, and discharging an abundance of very minute glo- 

 bular spores, of a beautiful blue-green colour. 



The barren stems are either erect or decumbent in their 

 mode of growth, and are from one to two feet or more in 

 height; they are often branched from the bottom to the 

 top, but sometimes only the central and upper parts are 

 branched. They spring up after the fertile stems have 

 withered, and are of a pale green colour ; at first crowded 

 with short appressed branches, which, by degrees, become 

 elongated, and assume a spreading or somewhat drooping 



