224 
HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 
reduced, and a small portion only remains over to produce 
new foliage the following season. The direction of the 
older portions may often be traced by means of a black 
line, caused by the decayed matter left on the surface of 
the soil where the stem has perished. 
The spike of fructification, which is produced towards 
autumn, is seated at the top of an erect branch-like peduncle, 
clothed throughout with leaves of the same shape as those 
on the horizontal stems ; the peduncle and spike are nearly 
of equal thickness throughout, the spike about an inch 
long, the peduncle rather more. The spike is green, and 
is formed of narrow linear-lanceolate bracts, rather dilated 
at the base, and sometimes having one or two shallow teeth 
on each side. The spore-cases are in the axils of these 
bracts, and are nearly spherical, of a pale yellowish-green, 
containing numerous minute pale-yellow spores. 
Lycopodium alpinum, Linnceus. 
Samn-leamd Club-moss, 
This Club-moss gets its trivial name from the resemblance 
between its branches clothed with the closely- pressed leaves, 
and those of the Savin, Juniperus Sabina, It is a pretty 
little evergreen plant, forming thick wide-spreading patches 
