XIV] LYCOPODIUM 39 



30 cm.) with small bracts in striking contrast to the foliage 

 leaves (fig. 121, D). A similar form of long and slender 

 strobilus occurs in L. Phlegmaria Linn., a common tropical 

 Lycopod: the fi-equent forking of the strobili noticed in this 

 and other species is a character not unknown among fossil cones 

 {Lepidostrohi). 



L. cernuum Linn. (fig. 123), another widely spread tropical 

 type, offers an even closer resemblance than L. squarrosum to 

 the fossil Lepidodendra. The stiff erect stem, reaching in some 

 cases a length of several feet, bears numerous repeatedly forked 

 branches, with crowded linear leaves, terminating in short 

 cylindrical cones with broadly ovate sporophylls. A similar 

 habit characterises the North American species L. obscurum 

 Linn. (fig. 124) bearing cones several centimetres in length. 



L. casuarinoides Spring (fig. 121, F) an eastern tropical 

 species, is worthy of notice as exhibiting a peculiar form of leaf 

 consisting of a very small lamina, 3 mm. in length, borne on the 

 top of a long decurrent base, which forms a narrow type of leaf- 

 cushion, bearing some resemblance to the long and rib-like 

 cushions of certain species of Sigillaria, and recalling the habit 

 of slender fossil twigs referred to the Coniferae under such 

 names as Widdringtonites, Cyparissidium, Sphenolepidium. 



L. voluhile Forst. (fig. 121, G) a New Zealand species, in 

 habit and leaf-form bears a close resemblance to the Jurassic 

 Lycopodites falcatus Lind. and Hutt. (fig. 137) : it is also a 

 representative of a few species of Lycopodium which agree 

 with the majority of species of Selaginella in having two 

 kinds of sterile leaves, comparatively long falcate leaves forming 

 two lateral rows and smaller appressed leaves on the upper 

 surface of the branches. 



These examples suffice to illustrate the general appearance 

 presented by the vegetative shoots of recent species of which 

 the foliage leaves vary considerably — from the small scale- 

 leaves of Lycopodium tetragonum, to the very slender linear 

 subulate leaves of such a species as L. verticillatum Linn, or the 

 long and broader lamina of L. Dalhousianum (fig. 121, E). It is 

 obvious that fragments of the various types preserved as fossils 

 might well be mistaken either for some of the larger mosses or 



