COMMON CLUB-MOSS. 
359 
plants on Crooksbuiy hill, near Farnham, in Surrey, spreading 
to a circumference of ten or twelve yards. The whole plant has 
a rigid, harsh, and wiry feel when handled, even in a living 
state, but more especially when dried. When the plant is about 
to produce seed there are thrown out, from various parts of its 
branches, spikes of about an inch in length, of a pale sulphur 
colour, and in shape somewhat resembling catkins ; these are 
usually double, but some few are single, and a still smaller num- 
ber treble ; they are erect and straight until the seed has been 
shed, when they become curved ; they are situated on a stalk 
about twice their own length, and nearly naked, a character 
which is sufficient to distinguish this from any other of our in- 
digenous species, and which gives to the plant, when growing 
luxuriantly, as I have seen it at Cwm Idwel and other parts of 
Caernarvonshire, a most striking and beautiful appearance. 
The whole of the branches are densely covered with nar- 
row, flattish, smooth leaves, the edges of which are slightly 
toothed, and the tips terminate in a filamentous point : the leaves 
as well as the stems are persistent ; I have observed them in 
March and April perfectly uninjured by our severest winters. 
On the stalks supporting the spikes the leaves are longer, nar- 
row, and of a pale yellowish green colour ; they are closely 
pressed against the stalk, and disposed somewhat in whorls, thus 
giving to the stalk the appearance of the stem of an Equisetum ; 
they also in a great degree want the long filamentous points 
which are invariably present on the leaves of the prostrate 
branches, to the extremities of which they often give a hoary 
appearance. In the spike itself the leaves are very much broader 
at the base, being altogether of a more triangular figure, and 
assuming the appearance and office of bracts or involucres ; 
their colour is pale yellow, and their margins are membranaceous 
and serrated. After the seed has escaped, these bracts become 
reflexed, giving to the spike a very altered character and ap- 
pearance. 
The capsules are somewhat reniform, perfectly sessile, and of 
a pale yellow colour : they are situated at the base of the bracts ; 
each is two-valved, and filled with numerous minute and almost 
impalpable seeds. 
