CHAPTER V 



LYCOPODIALES 



Lepidodendron and Lepidophloios 



We now come to another of the great divisions of 

 Vascular Cryptogams, that of the Lycopods, or Club- 

 mosses. Here, just as in the case of the Equisetales 

 with which we began, our object, as students of fossil 

 botany, is to extend and deepen our knowledge of a 

 group already more or less familiar to us from our 

 experience of recent plants. We shall find that, as 

 regards the Lycopodiales also, our idea of the Class 

 will become a much more adequate one, when we 

 have made ourselves acquainted with its ancient repre- 

 sentatives. 



The recent Lycopods are all, in one direction or 

 another, highly specialised forms, with the possible 

 exception of Phylloglossum, and even with respect to 

 Phylloglossum we are left in some doubt whether its 

 simple organisation may not be due to reduction, 

 rather than to the persistence of primitive characters. 



In Lycopodium itself, while the external characters 

 are simple enough, we find a singularly complex 

 anatomy of the stem, very different from that of any 



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