86 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
while wreaths of it are collected from the woods 
of Balmoral, where it grows in abundance, to 
grace the royal table. At the Lakes of Killarney 
the Irish tourist is compelled to purchase from 
his pertinacious followers the “Blessed Fir” as the 
people call the Lycopodium Selago. All the 
-species of lycopods are possessed of poisonous, or 
at least questionable properties. The L. cathar- 
zicum has been administered as a strong cathartic. 
In the Highlands they are employed with alum 
as a mordant to fix the native dyes in the manu- 
facture of tartan, while they are said themselves 
to produce a blue tint. 
Lycopods may be said to present the highest 
type of cryptogamic vegetation, the highest limit 
capable of being reached by flowerless plants. 
Indeed, they bear a very close affinity to 
coniferous trees, a resemblance which even the 
Irish peasantry have recognised in the name they 
have given to the Killarney species. The Lyco- 
podium dendroides of North America resembles at 
a distance young spruce firs, being similarly shaped 
and of a lively greencolour. This affinity, though 
indicated by very curious resemblances, is, how- 
ever, strictly analogical. The gap between the two 
great orders of plants is too wide to be overleaped 
by a sudden transition. There is a resemblance 
in external form, habit, and fructification; the 
