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194 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS.
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L yco po d ium in u n d a t um , Linnaus.— Kaxsh Club-moss.
(Plate XX. fig. 4.)
This is a diminutive and common plant, very frequent
on moist heaths and commons in the southern parts of
England, less common northwards, comparatively rare in
Wales and Scotland, and not found in Ireland. It prefers
to grow on spots from which the turf has been pared.
It is of prostrate habit, with simple stems two or three
inches long, growing close to the surface of the ground, to
which they are firmly attached by a few short stout roots.
They are thickly clothed with narrow linear-lanceolate
leaves, which have an acute point, and are entire on the
margin; those on the barren horizontal stems being curved
upwards. The plant extends itself at the point throughout
the growing season, the other end meanwhile undergoing
a process of decay, so that in winter, when the growth is
arrested, the decay still going on, the living stem is much
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 sporules.
L y co po d ium se l a g in o id e s , Linnæus.— Prickly Club-
moss.
This interesting species has a slender, procumbent, often
branched stem, the barren branches short and sinuous, the
fertile ones ascending or erect, and from two to three inches
high. They are clothed with lance-shaped leaves, of a delicate
texture, jagged along the margins with spiny teeth;
those on the decumbent stems being shorter, as well as more
distant and spreading, than those of the fertile branches.
The infiorescence, as in the other species, is a terminal
spike of about an inch in length, consisting of lance-shaped
jagged-edged bracts, larger and more closely pressed than
the leaves of the stem. These bracts produce from their
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