ii6 



The Irish Naturalist. 



[ May, 



more frequent in the Marsh Horsetail, E. pahistre. This is a 

 variable plant, the stems normally branched, but varying 

 from quite unbranched to profusely branched. Should the 

 main stem be injured, the branches often produce numerous 

 small fruit-cones. Occasionally a quite uninjured specimen 

 will be found (see fig. 9) in which the main stem terminates 

 in a fully developed cone, and man}- of the branches likewise ; 

 a feature which has not been observed, so far as I am aware, 

 in an}^ other of our whorl-branched Horsetails. This is the 

 sport-- variety is a misnomer for it — that has received the 

 nOiiw^ polystachytim. An example of it, collected on the shore 

 of IfOugh Neagh in Co. Antrim is figured (fig 9). Eqiiisetum 



Fig. 9. — Equisetum ^ahistre^ var. folystachynm. Shane's Castle, Co. Antrim, 



R. 1,1. P., 1891. 



