THE CLUB-MOSS TRIBE. 273 



This is the case in the Club-moss tribe (Lycopo- 

 diaccEe, Plate XXIII. 2.), to which I have alluded. 

 Club-mosses, in some parts of England called also 

 Snake-mosses, are humble plants which grow on moors 

 or heaths, or half-drained bogs, over which their scaly 

 stems creep and interweave. There are no veins 

 in their leaves, which are for the most part narrow, 

 and taper-pointed. When about to reproduce them- 

 selves, they emit from the ends of their branches, 

 which are usually forked like the veins in a Fern- 

 leaf, a slender shoot of a paler colour than the re- 

 mainder, and terminated by a yellowish thickened 

 oblong, or club-shaped head. Among the hair- 

 pointed leaves of the head lie, one in the bosom of 

 every leaf, pale yellow cases, opening by two or three 

 valves (^fig. l.)» ^^^ containing either a fine powdery 

 substance, or a few large grains or spores. These are 

 all the means such plants have of propagating them- 

 selves ; and it is uncertain what the exact difference 

 is in the purposes to which the powder and the spores 

 are severally destined. The latter, no doubt, grow 

 like seeds, but it is not quite certain that the powder 

 grows also ; there are those who say they have seen 

 the powder grow, but their observations require to be 

 repeated. 



Such plants seem to occupy an intermediate place 

 between Ferns and Mosses, to the latter of which my 

 next letter will refer. I will not detain you about them 

 further than by remarking, that although they are now 

 seldom more than three or four feet long, and are ge- 

 nerally much smaller, it is probable that either similar 



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