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LYCOPODIUM

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 153 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LYCOPODIUM , the See also:

principal genus of the Lycopodiaceae, a natural See also:order of the See also:Fern-See also:allies (see PTEIIDOPHYTA). They are flowerless herbs, with an erect, prostrate or creeping widely-branched See also:stem, with- small See also:simple leaves which thickly See also:cover the stem and branches. The " fertile " leaves are arranged in cones, and See also:bear spore-cases (sporangia) in their axils, containing spores of one See also:kind only. The prothallium See also:developed from the spore is a subterranean See also:mass of See also:tissue of considerable See also:size, and bears the male and See also:female See also:organs (antheridia and archegonia). There are about a See also:hundred See also:species widely distributed in temperate and tropical climates; five occur in See also:Britain on heaths and See also:moors, chiefly in mountainous districts, and are known as See also:club- , Two passages of the See also:Cassandra, 1446–1450 and 1226–1282, in which the career of the See also:Roman See also:people and their universal See also:empire are spoken of, could not possibly have been written by an Alexandrian poet of 250 B.C. Hence it has been maintained by See also:Niebuhr and others that the poem was written, by a later poet mentioned by See also:Tzetzes, but the See also:opinion of See also:Welcker that these paragraphs are a later See also:interpolation is generally considered more probable.mosses. The commonest species, L. clavatum, is also known as See also:stag-See also:horn See also:moss. See also:Gerard, in 1597, described two kinds of lycopodium (Herball, p. 1373) under the names Muscus denticulatus and Muscus clavatus (L. clavatum) as " Club Mosse or Woolfes Clawe Mosse," the names being in See also:Low Dutch, " Wolfs Clauwen," from the resemblance of the club-like or claw-shaped shoots to the toes of a See also:wolf, " whereupon we first named it Lycopodion." Gerard also speaks of its emetic and many other supposed virtues. L. Selago and L. catharticum (a native of the See also:Andes) have been said to be, at least when fresh, cathartic; s7yasssy. From Strasburger's Lehrbuch der Botanik, by permission of Gustav See also:Fischer.

A, Old prothallus. the specialized erect branches B, Prothallus bearing a See also:

young bearing the strobile or cones. sporophyte. H, Sporophyte bearing the single G, Polian of a mature plant, sporangium on its upper showing the creeping See also:habit, See also:surface. the See also:adventitious roots and J, Spore. but, with the exception of the spores of L. clavatum (" lycopodium See also:powder "), lycopodium as a See also:drug has fallen into disuse. The powder is used for See also:rolling pills in, as a dusting powder for infants' sores, &c. A tinctura lycopodii, containing one See also:part of the powder to ten of See also:alcohol (9c %), has been given, in doses of 15 to 6o minims, in cases of irritation and spasm of the See also:bladder. The powder is highly inflammable, and is used in pyrotechny and for artificial See also:lightning on the See also:stage. If the See also:hand be covered with the powder it cannot be wetted on being plunged into See also:water. Another use of lycopodium is for See also:dyeing; woollen See also:cloth boiled with species of lycopodium, as L. clavatum, becomes See also:blue when dipped in a See also:bath of See also:Brazil See also:wood.

End of Article: LYCOPODIUM

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