I20 



The Irish Naturalist. 



[May, 



are still only half-grown. This intermediate state is the 

 var. serotimun of Braun. Figure 12 shows a remarkable sport 

 found by Miss Knowles near Coleraine, in which a spike of 

 fructification is borne on a stem resembling a normal barren 

 stem, with whorls of branches above and below it. This 

 specimen suggests that the cone-like fruit-spike is produced 

 b}^ the crowding together and modification of several whorls 

 of branches or of leaves. 



Fig 12. — Equisetum maximum. Found near Coleraine, 

 M. C. Knowles, 1894. 



I have not the knowledge to discuss the morphological 

 significance, if any, of the aberrations which I have just 

 described. I merely wish to draw attention to the fact of the 

 occurrence of these variations, and to the siiggestiveness of 

 some of them. A chance sport may cast an interesting light 

 on the afiinit}' and relations of the difierent parts of these 

 plants, and on the path along which structures, now very 

 different, diverged from a common ancestral form. 



