90 THE TRAILING LYCOPODIUMS. 



larger leaves with tips closely appressed ; while on each 

 edge of the branchlets, and most noticeable from above, 

 is another row of the large leaves with slender spreading 

 tips. 'The largest of these leaves are often not an eighth 

 of an inch long, but their bases, being broad and decur- 

 rent, form a tiny lateral wing to the branchlets. The 

 leaves on the main stem usually have narrower bases. 



The fruit-spikes are an inch or more long and are 

 borne on slender yellowish peduncles three or four inches 

 in length. These are produced from near the tips of the 

 main branches, two or three peduncles from each branch, 

 and from their position are apparently transformed 

 lateral branches. At the apex each peduncle forks, and 

 each fork immediately forks again, thus giving rise to 

 four cones of fruit. Occasionally there are one or two 

 more fruit-cones, but four is the usual number. The 

 peduncles are sparsely clothed wilh slender, nearly 

 appressed scales, and the cones consist of large numbers 

 of white-margined, heart-shaped scales with broad bases 

 and slender tips, each covering a kidney-shaped spore- 

 case in its axil. The spores are very numerous and are ripe 

 about August or September. Like those of Lycopodium 

 clavatum, they are gathered in quantity and have a com- 

 mercial value. In most club-mosses, after a branch has 

 once borne fruit, it commonly does not fruit again, but 

 in this species it is not unusual for new branchlets and 

 new fruit-spikes to be produced for two or perhaps more 

 successive seasons. 



This species was named complanatum by Linnseus, and 

 until recently our well-known plant has been called by 

 that name. It would seem, however, that the branch- 

 lets in the Linnaean specimens were less inclined to 

 spread horizontally, and from this circumstance Mr. M. 



