DECUMBENT LYCOPODIUMS. 117 



that the novice might be excused if he should think it a 

 gigantic specimen of the northern plant. This new spe- 

 cies is the fox-tail club-moss (Lycopodium alopecuroides), 

 a plant which reaches its best development in the South- 

 ern States, but which in the northern part of its range is 

 still so robust that the single characteristic of size is 

 nearly enough to distinguish it. 



The sterile stems of Lycopodium alopecuroides are from 

 ten inches to two feet long. In small specimens they 

 may arch as do those of Lycopodium inundatiim, but in the 

 larger plants they are likely to be simply trailing. The 

 main stems are about an eighth of an inch in diame- 

 ter and give off several lateral branches, the more vig- 

 orous of which may branch again. The stems root most 

 abundantly near the tips, but may also produce slender 

 roots wherever they come in contact with the soil. 



The leaves are a quarter of an inch or more in length 

 and are produced thickly on all sides of the stem, but 

 those from the under surface grow upward and appear as 

 if produced from the sides. They are narrowly linear, 

 spreading, with the tips pointed, and the margins bear- 

 ing an occasional slender tooth. 



The fruiting stems are erect, a foot or more high, and 

 are clothed with appressed or spreading leaves like those 

 of the sterile parts. The spore-bearing area is from one 

 to four inches long, and about one third thicker than the 

 stem t which bears it. The sporophylls are much like 

 the ordinary leaves, but longer and with more teeth. 

 The spores ripen very late in the year, often not until 

 the end of October in the north. Unlike Lycopodium 

 inundatiun, a single plant often produces several fer- 

 tile stems, as well as certain additional upright stems 

 that are manifestly in the nature of fertile stems, but 



