880 
LYCOPODIACE^. 
the second year, leaving green and vigorous young ones grow- 
ing on the parent stem. Some of the gemmm were accidentally 
detached when the specimen w^as planted in the glass ; these 
have vegetated on the surface of the soil, and produced young 
plants, one of which is now more than an inch high. 
It appears to me that by these gemmae the plant is so abun- 
dantly propagated in a state of nature, and not by its seeds. In 
a paper by Sir J. E. Smith, printed in the ‘ Transactions of the 
Linnean Society,’ Mr. Joseph Fox, of Norwich, is said to have 
raised young plants of Lycopodium Selago from seed. The re- 
cord of these experiments appears to me very unsatisfactory, as 
no detail is given, and I am quite inclined to suppose that the 
gemmae were mistaken by that industrious individual for the 
seeds ; if so, his observations have been verified by many sub- 
sequent cultivators.^ 
I have already stated that the perichaetial leaves and their 
buds occur near the extremities of the branches ; below them, 
and in the axils of the ordinary leaves, are pro- 
duced the true capsules, each ultimate branch 
being alike fertile throughout the greater part of 
its length. The capsules are sessile, large, yellow, 
reniform and bivalve ; their dehiscence is rectili- 
near and longitudinal, but rarely takes place in a 
state of nature. In every plant that I have exa- 
mined while living, the capsules have been firmly 
closed ; by pressure however they may be com- 
pelled to open, when they are found to be filled with minute 
yellow seeds. A detached leaf, with its axillary capsule, is re- 
presented in the margin. 
The passage referred to is as follows “ Mr. Joseph Fox, a journeyman 
weaver of Norwich, * * showed me in the year 1779, young plants of Lyco^ 
popium Selago, raised from seed in his own garden.™ Trans, Linn. Soc, ii, 315. 
