50 FERN ALLIES. 



of tadpoles wriggle round the half-submerged Equisetum 

 stems. In ponds about Hawkhurst, in Kent, in ditches 

 in Durham, and on the margin of the lake at Longleat, 

 Wilts, we have gathered fronds of this Horse-tail between 

 two and three feet in length. Haller informs us that in 

 Rome the lower classes used this species as food, but cattle 

 always avoid it. 



As the Great Horse-tail claims superiority in size over 

 its fellows, so does the Wood Horse-tail (E. sylvaticuin 

 Jig, 1) claim the superiority of beauty. Springing in 

 shady well-watered nooks, in subalpine situations, this 

 plant forms a graceful object in a beautiful landscape. 

 In Swaledale we found this plant first ; it abounds in 

 thickets alono; the hill-sides between Melbecks and 

 Summer Lodge. Growing about a foot and a-half in 

 height, its whorls of branches becoming shorter towards 

 the base and summit, each branch bearing clusters of 

 branchlets, and bending downwards with a graceful curve, 

 it resembles some elegant oriental tree, a palm or a cycad, 

 much more than one of our despised Horse-tails. In our 

 May ramble we found the plants in full beauty, each 

 graceful stem surmounted by a small cone. 



The Smooth Horse-tail (E. limosum,^. 3) frequents 

 similar situations as the Great Horse tail ; we have 

 gathered it in Swaledale. Sowerby tells us that it is 

 " an active agent in the conversion of pools into swamps 

 and morasses, which it abandons as the soil becomes 

 elevated, so as not to admit the retention of water on the 

 surface." W^e saw it performing this part in a shallow 

 pond at Hawkhurst, which is now dried up altogether. 



