THE TRAILING LYCOPODIUMS. 



IKENESSES among the club-mosses are so 

 noticeable that any member of the group is 

 easily recognized. Certain differences in the 

 manner of growth, however, make them 

 separable into two groups, in one of which 

 the species are small and the plant body 

 mostly erect or decumbent, while in the 

 other the plants are larger and 

 the principal stems long and 

 trailing. These latter are the 



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species that figure in our holiday 

 decorations, and as most of them are well known in 

 consequence, and are also common and widely distrib- 

 uted, they will be discussed in this first of two sections 

 devoted to the club mosses. 



The Common Club-Moss. 



One seldom goes far in the scrubby uplands without 

 coming upon the long, dark-green stems and yellow 

 spikes of the common club-moss (Lycopodium clavatnui], 

 which delights to grow close to the earth and half 

 hidden by the surrounding vegetation. In sunny 

 thickets, however, it is often so abundant as completely 

 to carpet the ground for many yards with its interlacing 

 stems, and it is everywhere one of the most abundant 

 species of its genus. 



