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Updated: July 7, 2025
Now they are hewing their way through a thicket of enormous flags; now through bamboos forty feet high; now they are stumbling over boulders, waist-deep in cushions of club-moss; now they are struggling through shrubberies of heaths and rhododendrons, and woolly incense-trees, where every leaf, as they brush past, dashes some fresh scent into their faces, and
But, in this case it may be asked, why does not our English coal consist of stems and leaves to a much greater extent than it does? What is the reason of the predominance of the spores and spore-cases in it? A ready answer to this question is afforded by the study of a living full-grown club-moss.
What makes Erica Tetralix grow in one soil, and the bracken in another? How did three species of Club-moss one of them quite an Alpine one get down here, all the way from Wales perhaps, upon this isolated patch of gravel?
Tons of it we use today in our Christmas decorations, nor does the supply from the Massachusetts woods seem to diminish, ground-pine, common, and "coral" evergreen, all varieties of the club-moss, that are commonest out of the dozen that we have in all.
Now, the little Scottish or Alpine club-moss which is so familiar, produces its own little cones, each with its series of outside scales or leaves; these are attached to the bags or spore-cases, which are crowded with spores.
Close by, another yellow flower, smaller but more pickable, is just now waving, the rock rose or frostweed, bearing two sorts of flowers: the conspicuous yellow ones, somewhat resembling small evening primroses, while all the ground between is covered with an humble member of the rock rose family the tufted beach heather with its intricate branches, reminding one more of a club-moss than a true flowering plant.
But, in their essential structure, they very closely resemble the earliest Lepidodendroid trees of the coal: their stems and leaves are similar; so are their cones; and no less like are the sporangia and spores; while even in their size, the spores of the Lepidodendron and those of the existing Lycopodium, or club-moss, very closely approach one another.
In Cornwall, the club-moss, if properly gathered, is considered "good against all diseases of the eye." The mode of procedure is this: "On the third day of the moon, when the thin crescent is seen for the first time, show it the knife with which the moss is to be cut, and repeat this formula: 'As Christ healed the issue of blood, Do thou cut what thou cuttest for good.
If it had anything to do with sailin' vessels I could help considerable. But riggin' up churches is not in my line. Howsomever, I'll help all I kin." The very next Saturday Captain Josh led his scouts into the woods to gather their first supply of club-moss. He carried his rifle with him.
But, in their essential structure, they very closely resemble the earliest Lepidodendroid trees of the coal: their stems and leaves are similar; so are their cones; and no less like are the sporangia and spores; while even in their size, the spores of the Lepidodendron and those of the existing Lycopodium, or club-moss, very closely approach one another.
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