FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 137 



the period of its growth, lengthens at the point, the 

 other end gradually decaying. The winter, which stops 

 the growth, does not arrest the decay, so that little is 

 left of the stem to produce the next year's foliage, while 

 the withered remains of summer look like a number of 

 black marks or hues among the short grass of the heath 

 in spring, resembhng a plant which has been scorched 

 and blackened by fire. The green portion of the club- 

 moss is very small at this season, for many plants perish 

 wholly in the winter, and it is only the vigorous ones 

 which may now be seen putting forth their new leaves. 

 The spikes of fructification are produced in autumn, 

 each being at the top of a footstalk rather longer than 

 itself, and nearly of the same thickness ; and, as well as 

 the spike, being surrounded by green linear scales rather 

 larger at the base, and sometimes having one or two 

 minute teeth at the sides. The capsules lie between the 

 scales and the stem; they are of a -pale yellowish-green, 

 and filled with yellow dust-like powder. 



5. L. selaginoides (Prickly Club-moss, or Mountain 

 Moss). — Stems procumbent ; leaves lanceolate, acute ; 

 spikes solitary ; scales egg-shaped. This plant is not in 

 any degree prickly in the true sense of the word, and, 

 indeed, its smaller degree of rigidity renders it less so to 

 the touch than most of the species. Its stem is creep- 

 ing, two or three inches long, very weak and slender, 

 lying close to the ground, and repeatedly branched. 

 The whole plant is covered with lanceolate dehcate 

 leaves, their margins beset with small spiny teeth. The 

 fertile branches differ from the winding barren ones in 

 their erect growth, the barren ones being quite trailing. 



