DECUMBENT LYCOPODIUMS. i^^ 



or twelve inches, — several times the length of the 

 sterile stems. They are very slender, but are stiffly 

 erect and sparsel)- clothed with small, linear, appressed, 

 long-pointed leaves. At the top is borne the single 

 cone, consisting of many close-set, yellow sporophylls, 

 each subtending a roundish spore-case. The sporophylls 

 are broad and rounded, with spreading tips, and the 

 cone is about three times the diameter of the stem or 

 peduncle. In the northern part of its range the fertile 

 stems are usually short, and the cones are from half an 

 inch to an inch long. In the South the stems are taller, 

 and the fruiting portion often three or four inches long, 

 though not much thicker than in the Northern plant. 



The Carolina club-moss is found from central New 

 Jersey south to Florida and Louisiana, so far as known, 

 only near the coast. It delights in open sandy swamps 

 in the pine-barrens, and in its New Jersey haunt is fre- 

 quently a neighbour of that rare little fern, Scliiziea 

 ptisilla. It is not found in Europe, but according to 

 Baker's "Handbook of the Fern Allies" it occurs in 

 Ceylon, Hong Kong, New Guinea, Tasmania, and the 

 Cape of Good Hope. It is also reported to occur in 

 South America as far south as Brazil. It is probable 

 that many of these forms will ultimately turn out to be 

 different species. Some are described as having stems a 

 foot long. In the tropics, forms referred to Lycopodiuiii 

 Carolinianuiii sometimes bear tubercles on the sterile 

 stems. 



