1. O. vulgàtum, L. Fronds from a slender rootstock (2–12´ high), mostly solitary; sterile segment sessile near the middle of the plant, ovate or elliptical (1–3´ long); midvein indistinct or none; veins forming small meshes enclosed in larger ones.—Bogs and pastures; not common. July. (Eu.)
Order 133. LYCOPODIÀCEÆ. (Club-Moss Family.)
Low plants, usually of moss-like aspect, with elongated and often much branched stems covered with small lanceolate or subulate, rarely oblong or rounded, persistent entire leaves; the sporangia 1–3-celled, solitary in the axils of the leaves, or on their upper surface, when ripe opening into two or three valves, and shedding the numerous yellow spores, which are all of one kind.—The Order, as here defined, consists mainly of the large genus
1. LYCOPÒDIUM, L. Club-Moss. ([Pl. 21.])
Spore-cases coriaceous, flattened, usually kidney-shaped, 1-celled, 2-valved, mostly by a transverse line round the margin, discharging the subtile spores in the form of a copious sulphur-colored inflammable powder.—Perennials, with evergreen one-nerved leaves, imbricated or crowded in 4–16 ranks. (Name compounded of λύκος, a wolf, and ποῦς, foot, from no obvious resemblance.)
§ 1. Spore-cases in the axils of the ordinary (dark green and shining, rigid, lanceolate, about 8-ranked) leaves.
1. L. Selàgo, L. Stems erect and rigid, dichotomous, forming a level-topped cluster (3–6´ high); leaves uniform, crowded, ascending, glossy, pointed, entire or denticulate; sporangia in the axils of unaltered leaves.—Mountain-tops, Maine to Lake Superior, and northward.—The leaves of this and the next species often bear little gemmæ, with the lower bracts pointed, and the 2–3 uppermost broadly obovate and fleshy, as figured in 1768 by Dillenius. These gemmæ fall to the ground and their axis grows into the stem of a new plant, as specimens collected in 1854 show very plainly. (For their true nature see Sachs' Lehrbuch, Engl. trans., p. 411.)
2. L. lucídulum, Michx. Stems assurgent, less rigid, dichotomous (6–12´ long); leaves pointed, toothed, at first spreading, then deflexed, arranged, in alternate zones of shorter and longer leaves, the shorter leaves more frequently bearing sporangia in their axils; proliferous gemmæ usually abundant.—Cold, damp woods; common northward. Aug.
§ 2. Spore-cases only in the axils of the upper (bracteal) leaves, thus forming a spike.
[*] Leaves of the creeping sterile and of the upright fertile stems or branches and those of the simple spike nearly alike, many-ranked.