1024 



THE EQUISETUM FAMILY. 



Irregularly distributed over various parts of Scotland and England, 

 but not common ; in Ireland has been found only on the margin of a 

 small lake at Letterfrack, in Connemara. Fr. summer and autumn. 



6. Lesser Clubmoss. Lycopodium selaginoides, Linn. 



(Fig. 1248.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1148.) 



Stems slender, prostrate, much branch- 

 ed, forming moss-like patches 3 or 4 

 inches in diameter. Leaves spreading, 

 lanceolate, pointed, 1 to 1\ lines long, 

 not so densely crowded as in the other 

 species. Fruiting branches ascending or 

 erect, solitary and simple, with rather 

 longer leaves ; those of the spike or 

 fruiting part fully 2 lines long, lanceolate, 

 and bordered with a few fine teeth. 

 Spike ^ to J inch long, the upper cap- 

 sules filled with a minute powdery dust, 

 the lower containing larger grains. 



In moist mountain pastures, and wet, 

 stony places, in Europe, Russian Asia, 

 and North America, extending from the 

 Alps and Pyrenees to the Arctic regions. 

 Not uncommon in Scotland, northern and central England, North 

 Wales, and northern Ireland. Fr. summer and autumn. 



Fig. 1248. 



LXXXIX. EQUISETUM FAMILY. EQUISETACE.E. 



A family consisting of a single genus, distinguished from all 

 others as well by the articulate steins and whorled branches, only 

 resembling some of the larger fossil plants now extinct, as by the 

 fructification. 



I. EQUISETUM. EQUISETUM. 



Leafless herbs, with a perennial, usually creeping rootstock, and 

 erect, rush-like, hollow, and jointed stems, marked with longitudinal 



