200 
BRITISH FERNS. 
narrow but not acute point. 
The roots are strong and wiry, 
like those of the common 
species, and the whole has a 
bitter flavour and emetic pro- 
perties. Sir W. J. Hooker 
saw it stored in Iceland, for 
the purpose of imparting a 
yellow colour to woollen 
goods. The spikes droop after 
the seed is shed, giving a still 
more untidy appearance to the 
plant than the mere decur- 
rence of the bracts does to its congeners. 
In the fernery it requires the same treatment as the 
WolPs-claw. 
This Lycopod grows abundantly in the hilly districts 
of Scotland and the North of England, preferring ground 
not overshadowed by heath or shrubs, and flourishing 
best among the sward on the hillsides. 
Its foreign homes are of a boreal nature ; the Alps, 
Pyrenees, and Vosges, indeed, boast its presence, accord- 
ing to Sir W. Hooker ; but it is most abundant in Si- 
beria and Northern Asia, Lapland, Norway, and North 
America. 
54. Lycopodium Selago. Fir Club-Moss. 
Stems erect, rigid, abundantly branched. Branches blunt, 
leafy. Leaves erect, overlapping, lanceolate, sharp-pointed, 
with entire margin. Capsules in the axils of the upper leaves. 
The Fir Club-rnoss has numerous, thick, wiry roots; 
the stem is thick and tough ; the branches repeatedly 
forked and clustering; the leaves firm, rigid, and of 
