1918] Fernald,— American Equisetum sylvaticum 131 
freely forking, much as in the European var. pyramidale Milde, but 
var. pyramidale has the scabrous angles of the branches characteristic 
of most European material, while the freely forking American plant 
is clearly only an extreme form of var. pauciramosum. Other varia- 
tions in America of less pronounced character than those just discussed 
have been identified by the late A. A. Eaton with Milde’s varieties 
and forms of the European plant, but so far as the writer can find 
from examination of Mr. Eaton’s American material referred to var. 
capillare (Hoffm.) Willd., var. robustum Milde, var. praecox Milde, ete. 
these American.plants are all phases of the smooth-branched North 
American var. pauciramosum. The form with freely forking branches, 
the only form of var. pauciramosum which seems to merit a special 
designation, is less common northward than the form with simpler 
branches, but in the southern part of the range it is distinctly more 
abundant, being the common plant of southern New England, south- 
ward into Pennsylvania and locally westward to British Columbia. 
The three most pronounced American variations of E. sylvaticum 
may be briefly defined as follows: 
E. syLvaticuĪMm L. Sp. Pl. ii. 1061 (1753). Branches copiously 
scabrous, especially along the lower internodes.— Common in Eura- 
sia! In North America apparently very local. The following speci- 
mens have been examined: ONTARIO: Parry Sound, Georgian Bay, 
August 21, 1901, E. L. Moseley. ALASKA: among alder and willow, 
11 miles west of Nome City, August 5, 1900, J. B. Flett, no. 1524 
(type of var. squarrosum A. A. Eaton, Fern Bull. ix. 36). 
Var. PAUCIRAMosUM Milde, Mon. Equiset. 292, t. 9, fig. 2 (1865).— 
Greenland and Labrador south to New England and locally west- 
ward to British Columbia; also eastern Asia and rarely in Europe. 
Material slightly transitional to the preceding has been seen from 
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Yukon. 
Var. PAUCIRAMosUM, forma multiramosum, n. f., ramis valde 
furcatis laevibus.— Southern Labrador and Newfoundland to Penn- 
sylvania, locally westward to British Columbia. Tyre in Gray Herb. 
collected by A. A. Heller at Penryn, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, 
May 30, 1889. 
_ Gray HERBARIUM. 
_1 The writer can find no basis for the extreme restriction of the European range of this plant 
given by Mr. Eaton, who says “It grows from the highest north in Europe to about 71° N. Lat." 
— Fern Bull. ix. 34 (1901). 
