3 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



which none explain. l>u: which is the 

 gift of the Creator to him who stoops 



to read the epics of time written in the 

 dust. 



( >ne leading m< »tn e i >f the I .. II. 

 Nature League is to lead toward a 

 Stronger impulse along the lines of 

 original observation of things familiar 

 to the eye, yet not distinctively seen, or 

 really known. To lead toward the en- 

 richment of those who see but do 

 not understand, through the written 

 words of those lovers of nature, who 

 each have caught at least a trace of 

 some enticing secret, hidden perhaps 

 to many another eye. 



If this department is to fulfill its 

 mission our members will need to re- 

 member, and act upon the memory, 

 that to open the gates of knowledge, or 

 of thought, that another may know a 

 new source of joy is not only to pass 

 on the riches of a moment, but it is to 

 store with memory-pictures of helpful 

 thought, the archives of new days — in 

 a word, to give of one's self for an- 

 other's joy — for ministry. 



Then write us scraps of what you 

 know ; of what you have seen — not of 

 the lore of books in which you have 

 delved ; not from the stories of experi- 

 ences others have known, but of the 

 something you discovered beneath a 

 stone ; of something you saw in the 

 grass, or of some secret, wrapped, per- 

 haps, in the heart of a flower. G. K. 



Equisetum Arvense 



On April days, when one is looking 

 f( »r hepaticas and spring beauties, among 

 the treasures of the new flower-year, a 

 phalanx of the Equisetum Arvense 

 meets the eye as a delightful surprise. 



Phantom rush would seem to be an ap- 

 propriate name for this wierd little pres- 

 ence that springs up arrow-like, from 

 amid arid sands, where little else could 

 find sustenance, coming to us as it does 

 fiom a long ancestry, reaching back into 

 the Carboniferous and Triassic periods. 



It was in those days, lost in the mists 

 of the past, that the Equisetacese flour- 

 ished. Their story is told in the stone 

 book of the ages, where the fossil has 

 written its legends. 



The majority have passed with the 

 centuries, leaving only imperfect fossil 



remains — Equisetites an order known 

 now through the lv|uisetites which be- 

 ing imperfect in important portions of 

 their structure, tell but a mutilated >tory. 



We have with us, however, the rem- 

 nant of this interesting order of vascu- 

 lar cryptogamous plants, who have de- 

 fied the upheaval and tragedy of world- 

 building, and. though in depleted num- 

 bers, yet hold their own among the 

 pontic and marvelous creation- of plant- 

 life. 



The E. Arvense, which is the most 

 common of all species, when seen under 

 most favorable conditions, is erect and 

 suggestive of a determined spirit equal 

 to taking up and occupying the ground 

 where it elects to locate. This is said 

 more because of the impression given 

 by the vast array of little straight yel- 

 low-brown stems, which may appear on 

 barren sands, than because of any real 

 strength in these frail, fertile stems, 

 which though largely composed of silica, 

 break at the slightest touch. 



This fertile stem which is the first to 

 appear in the spring, is a hollow, leafless 

 cylinder, intercepted at the joints, each 

 joint ending in a dark brown toothed 

 leaf, or sheath, which encloses the 

 joint beyond it. These fertile stems end 

 at the summit, with a cone-shaped struc- 

 ture, the organ of fructification, bearing 

 a number of clypcolas, attached by elas- 

 tic threads, each clypcola bearing a num- 

 ber of sporangia, the threars support- 

 ing which are rolled up when moist, 

 but uncoil when dry. 



The momentum given the spores 

 through the uncoiling of these threads, 

 aids in their distribution throughout 

 their habitat. 



The sterile stems of the E. arvense 

 which spring up as the fertile stems 

 complete their mission and disappear, 

 remind one of miniature forests, as their 

 small tree-like forms stand robing in 

 green some dusty arid roadside. 



The Equisetaceae belong to a distinct 

 genus, forming an independent factor 

 in the world's flora in the past, but today 

 numbering only a few species, and these 

 of a very inconsiderable size ranging 

 from a few inches to several feet. 



E. gigantum, discovered by Humbolt 

 and Beaupland, in South America, at- 



