94 THE TRAILING LYCOPODIUMS. 



complanatum in general appearance, and which is as- 

 sumed by some to be connected with it by the form 

 called Lycopodium complanatum cJiauicecyparissus. While 

 it is possible that cJiaincecyparissus may represent part of 

 the line along which its evolution proceeded, it is cer- 

 tainly a distinct species now. Botanists know it by the 

 name of Lycopodium alpinum, and the general public 

 speak of it as the ground-fir. 



The ground-fir resembles its congeners in having a 

 long and creeping main stem, close to the earth, from 

 which at short intervals it sends up short, erect branches 

 that fork repeatedly, forming dense, flat-topped clusters. 

 As in the other species, the branchlets add to their 

 length the second and perhaps subsequent seasons, the 

 new growth usually again forking. The leaves are about 

 an eighth of an inch long, broadly lanceolate, pointed, 

 and decurrent. They are dark green in colour, thick, 

 rounded on the outer surface, and closely appressed to 

 the branches, along which they are arranged in four 

 rows. Owing to this arrangement of the leaves, the 

 branchlets appear four-sided. 



The fruiting parts are raised above the flat-topped 

 clusters of branchlets on very short peduncles 

 which are manifestly continuations of the main 

 branches, and which resemble the branchlets ex- 

 cept that they are less leafy and the leaves are 

 somewhat narrower. The peduncles usually fork 

 once near the spikes, and the leaves gradually 

 merge into the short-pointed, toothed, and 

 broadly heart-shaped sporophylls of the spike. 

 Branch of The spikes are from half an inch to an inch long, 



Lycopodiu in 



alpinum. cylindrical, and become yellow-brown with re- 

 flexed sporophylls when aged. The peduncle appears 



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