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name. The species used for decorations at Christmas time are 

 more commonly called running pine, ground pine, or simply 

 evergreens, although the moss-like sterile portion and the club- 

 shaped spikes of fruit make the usual botanical name singularly 

 appropriate. 



The club-mosses are easily recognized. Most of the com- 

 mon species have a trailing vine-like stem, from which branches 

 rise at intervals, bearing great numbers of scaly or awl-shaped 

 leaves. The fruiting spikes also readily distinguish them. They 

 resemble an elongated pine cone in miniature. Under each scale 

 of this little cone, in the place that seeds are borne in the pine 

 cone, will be found the kidney-shaped spore-cases. These contain 

 great quantities of spores, as may be seen by shaking a ripe spike. 

 In some parts of the world these powdery spores are collected 

 for the market and they may be found in any drug store under 

 the name of Lycopodium. 



One of the most interesting peculiarities of these plants is the 

 way in which they move over the ground. Not that any of the' 

 species as a whole has the power of movement ; but the axis is so 

 rapidly added to at one end while as rapidly dying at the other, 

 that the individual plant is soon carried away from the place in 

 which it started. Indeed it may be a question for the meta- 

 physician to decide, whether after a few years it is the same 

 plant. Although its life has been uninterrupted it is not in the 

 original place, nor does it possess the same leaves, branches and 

 roots it had at the beginning. 



The club-mosses are hardy species and elect to grow on 

 desolate barrens and rocky wastes on the very edge of the world, 

 as it were. They are very common in northern lands and love 

 mountain slopes. In such places the common club-moss (L. 

 clavatum) is likely to be found. Its slender stem, thickly set 

 all round with awl-shaped leaves, and its spikes on long stems 

 will distinguish it. In cold, wet woods there is another species — 

 L. annotinum — that is much like it, except that the spikes of fruit 

 are sessile at the ends of the branches. Near the common species 

 one is likely to find L. complanatum with flat, fan-shaped 

 branches, like arbor vitae, that cannot be mistaken. Its spikes 

 are also on long stems. In rich woodlands there is a species 

 which grows a foot or more high and resembles not a little a 

 pine tree. This is L. obscurum. The clubs are sessile at the 



