FERN ALLIES. 49 



eradicate, and consequently as unwelcome to the farmer 

 as the Colt's-foot or Butter-bur. 



A certain " shore " in Kent, where the land is of a 

 stiff clay, and the water stands all winter and spring, and 

 great part of summer too, furnished us specimens of the 

 rare Blunt-topped Horse-tail (E. umbrosum). Very early 

 in the spring we took our walk along the Junction Road, 

 the great high road between London and Hastings, and 

 as we wandered along, seldom encountering any vehicle, 

 so entirely had the railway absorbed the traffic, our atten- 

 tion was attracted by thick stems springing from the wet 

 "shore," the deep sheaths covering the whole length, 

 and overlapping one another towards the apex, which 

 bore a larsje brown cone. Later in the season, when the 

 Furze and Broom were flaunting their crowds of golden 

 blossoms, and the Loosestrife was bordering every 

 sluggish stream with its fringe of crimson spikes, then 

 that " shore r ' became a perfect forest of Equisetum, each 

 barren stem resembling a Fox's brush, so crowded were 

 its whorls of branches. The short enin^ of the branches 

 towards the summit, their upward growth, and vast num- 

 ber, rendered the top of the "brush" flat — the cones had 

 disappeared months before. 



The Great Horse-tail (E. telmateia, fig. 2) is the best 

 living representative of the chiefs of the family in the 

 Brora age. On the margins of ponds and sluggish 

 streams, this plant grows to a considerable height, throw- 

 ing up its cones first, and then replacing the naked stems 

 with a forest of closely-packed clustering branches, among 

 which the frogs croak harmoniously on damp evenings, 

 and deposit their transparent eggs, while later, myriads 



D 



