IS98.] 



Praeger. — Fructification of Ferns, &c. 



115 



points in this connection call for special note — firstly, the 

 fact that in those species which bear special fructification^ 

 stems, these stems appear earlier in the season than the 

 barren ones ; and secondly, the power of the stems in thoso 

 species which do not bear special fruit-stems to produce 

 fructification on their branches, should the apex of the main 

 stem, where normally the fructification is borne, be injured or 

 destroyed. Let us take a few examples. The Water Horse- 

 tail, F. /imos2i?n, is normally unbranched, bearing the egg- 

 shaped fructification on the summit of its green jointed stem. 

 In flowing water or in shady places it develops whorls of 

 branchlets from the nodes of the upper part of the stem, and 

 the fruit-cone is frequently replaced by a slender tapering 

 stem-tip. Two cases have come under my own notice where the 

 main stem having been injured, the branches produced an 



Fig 7. 

 EqniseUim linwsum. 

 Found near Strabane, 

 Co. Tyrone, M. C. 

 Knowles, 1896. 



Fig ^,—Eqiiisettim limostim. Broughshane, Co. Antrim, R. LI. P., 1891. 



abundance of small fruit-cones, one at the extremity of each 

 (see figs. 7 and 8). But in this species such instances are very 

 rare. The adaptation to circumstances just described is much 



