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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

Order XCVI. Lycopodiaceæ

Order XCVI. Lycopodiaceæ.

Perennials, from a few inches to a few feet high. Stems erect or pendulous, or prostrate or creeping, simple or more usually dichotomously branched, often hard and wiry, usually leafy throughout. Leaves small, simple, entire or serrulate, more or less de-current at the base, indistinctly 1-nerved, either spreading all round the axis and of the same shape and size, or dimorphous with the larger ones distichously spreading. Sporangia all of one kind, coriaceous, 1-celled in the typical genera, 2–3–4-celled in Tmesipteris and Psilotum, borne singly on the upper base of fertile leaves or sporo-phylls. Sporophylls either similar to the foliage-leaves and placed all down the stem, or more or less reduced in size and bract-like-and aggregated into terminal spikes or cones, in Tmesipteris and Psilotum deeply bifid with the sporangia attached below the fork-Spores all of one kind, numerous, tetrahedral, marked with 3 radiating lines at the tip.

An order containing 4 genera and over 100 species, quite cosmopolitan in its distribution, and without any important economical properties or uses. The germination of the spores has so far been observed in a very small proportion of the species. The prothallium is monœcious, as in ferns, producing both arche-gonia and antheridia, but the species which have been examined exhibit great diversities in the shape and mode of growth of the prothallium and in its duration; and considerable variety also exists in the development of the embryonic plant. For particulars reference must be made to special text-books-or memoirs. As a matter of convenience, I have retained Tmesipteris and Psilotum in the order, but the structure of the sporangia and form of the sporophylls are so distinct that there can be little doubt that Pritzel and other authors are right in placing them in a distinct order.

A. Lycopodiineæ. Fertile leaves or sporophylls (bracts) simple, not forked. Sporangia reniform, compressed, 1-celled, dehiscing by a longitudinal slit.

Minute. Stem reduced to a small tuber crowned by subu late leaves. Sporangia forming a cone-like spike at the top of a naked peduncle 1. Phylloglossum.
Larger. Stem conspicuous, branched, leafy throughout. Sporangia collected into terminal or lateral spikes, rarely scattered along the branches. 2. Lycopodium.

B. Psilotineæ. Fertile leaves or sporophylls forked. Sporangia (synangia) 2–3–4-celled and valved, attached to the sporophylls below the fork.

Stems simple or rarely forked. Leaves conspicuous, vertical. Synangia boat-shaped, 2-celled 3. Tmesipteris.
Stems many times dichotomous. Leaves minute, scale-like. Synangia subglobose, usually 3-celled 4. Psilotum.