FIELD HORSETAIL 



These spores are produced in great abundance, and at 

 the proper time the slightest jar will shake them out 

 in clouds. By shaking a ripe stem over a piece of 

 white paper apparently a green powder is obtained 

 which, under the microscope, proves to be many tiny 

 green balls, each with four spiral bands wound about 

 it. These spirals uncoil and throw the spore, giving 

 it a movement as of something alive. The motor 

 power in these living springs is the evaporation of the 

 moisture in them, as they prepare to drift away with 

 the wind, bearing on their wings the hope of the plant. 

 After the spores are scattered the fertile stems wither 

 and disappear. At the same time the sterile stems 

 begin to appear springing from the small buds at the 

 top of the rootstock near the point where the fertile 

 stem arises. These finally develop into erect stems 

 from ten to eighteen inches high and bearing ring 

 after ring of green fringe. This fringe of angular 

 branchlets gives the plant a bushy appearance, in 

 which it is not difl&cult to fancy a likeness to the tail 

 of a horse. 



The Horsetail is not a flowering plant, but its stems 

 are one of the first signs of returning spring, and its 

 early and striking appearance gives it an honored 

 place among springtime vegetation. 



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