Notes . 
3 i 5 
do not penetrate deeply, and that he never found the roots attached 
to those of other plants. Should the young plants in cultivation here, 
and elsewhere, continue to thrive, it may be possible to make experi¬ 
ments and to satisfactorily elucidate the question. 
J. H. BURRAGE, Edinburgh. 
ON THE STRUCTURE OP THE STEM IN TWO SPECIES 
OP LYCOPODIUM. —Among the few species of Lycopodium pos¬ 
sessing dimorphic leaves, L. volubile , Forst., and L. scariosum , Forst., 
approach very closely to the habit of most species of Selaginella. 
That this is only a general resemblance is seen when one examines 
the arrangement of the leaves in L. volubile in detail. In the stouter 
branches of this species the leaves are not dimorphic; they are all 
small and similar, and cannot be referred to a definite phyllotaxy. 
There may be as many as twenty-two leaves from one to the next 
in the same vertical line, and they are arranged in an irregular manner, 
some at considerable intervals, a few of them in pairs, and others 
crowded into a short spiral, which may be succeeded by a few leaves 
forming a spiral running in the opposite direction. In the crowding 
of the leaves there is a tendency towards the formation of pseudo¬ 
whorls. 
In the smaller branches (roughly those of the three highest orders) 
the Selaginella- type of habit is found; this may be called the 
distichous region. There are here two series of large leaves extended 
in one plane, but, judging by the insertion of these leaves, they 
probably represent four orthostichies, which approximate to two in 
the upper region. Besides these, there are also about three ventral 
and three dorsal orthostichies of small leaves with their points directed 
forwards. This species is thus much more complex than Selaginella , 
which has only two rows of large leaves, and two dorsal rows of small 
ones. Towards the tips of the branches of L. volubile , the smaller 
leaves become reduced in number. Thus in the lower distichous 
region there are often three small leaves (two dorsal and one ventral) 
to each pair of large leaves, while, near the tip of a branch, there may 
be only two dorsal and one ventral leaf to a length of stem bearing 
two pairs of large leaves. The phyllotaxy of the cone is f. The 
other dimorphic species of Lycopodium 1 have various numbers of 
1 Baker, Handbook of Fern-Allies. 
