Palaeobotanical literature abounds in records of species of _Lycopodites_, _Lycopodium_, _Selaginella_ and _Selaginites_, which have been so named in the belief that their vegetative shoots bear a greater resemblance to those of recent lycopodiaceous plants than to the foliage shoots of _Lepidodendron_. Many of these records are valueless: _Lepidodendra_, twigs of _Bothrodendron_[169] species of conifers, fern rhizomes, and _Aphlebiae_[170] have masqueraded as herbaceous lycopods. It is obvious that an attempt to identify fossils presenting a general agreement in habit and leaf-form with recent species of lycopods must be attended with considerable risk of error. Recent Conifers include several species the smaller branches of which simulate the leafy shoots of certain species of _Lycopodium_ and _Selaginella_, and it is not surprising to find that this similarity has been responsible for many false determinations. Among Mosses and the larger foliose Liverworts there are species which in the condition of imperfectly preserved impressions, might easily be mistaken for lycopodiaceous shoots: an equally close resemblance is apparent in the case of some flowering plants, such as New Zealand species of _Veronica_, _Tafalla graveolens_ (a Composite), _Lavoisiera lycopodiodes_ Gard.[171] (a species of Melastomaceae), all of which have the habit of Cupressineae among the conifers as well as of certain lycopodiaceous plants. It may be impossible to decide whether fossil impressions of branches, which are presumably lycopodiaceous, bear two kinds of leaves[172] like the great majority of recent species of _Selaginella_. _Selaginella grandis_, if seen from the under surface, would appear to have two rows of leaves only and might be confused with a small twig of such a conifer as _Dacrydium Kirkii_, a New Zealand species. The New Zealand conifers _Dacrydium cupressinum_ Soland. and _Podocarpus dacrydioides_ Rich. closely simulate species of _Selaginellites_ and _Lycopodites_: in the British Museum a specimen of the latter species bears a label describing it as _Lycopodium arboreum_ (Sir Joseph Hooker and Dr Solander; 1769). The twigs of the Tasmanian conifer _Microcachyrs_ _tetragona_ Hook. f. are very similar in habit to shoots of the recent _Lycopodium tetragonum_ (fig. 121, C).