336 CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Equisetum. 



elongated, the scales separating from each other, disclos- 

 ing the cells, which discharge abundance of very minute 

 globular seeds. Every seed, or germen, is encompassed 

 with 4 spiral Jilamcnts, attached to its base, and termi- 

 nating in 4 dilated flat appendages, taken by Hedwig for 

 anthers, and producing a fine powder, or pollen. 

 Roots perennial, creeping. Stems herbaceous, more or less 

 branched, furrowed, tubular, jointed, with a cylindrical, 

 shai'p-toothed, membranous sheath, arising from each 

 joint, and embracing a portion of the stem or branch 

 above it. Leaves none. Catkiris terminal, stalked, soli- 

 tary, erect, naked, brown or blackish. Some species 

 bear them singly, on simple, radical, many-sheathed 

 shoots, soon withering away, before the copiously- 

 branched sterile fronds appear. In others they termi- 

 nate the proper y;•o;^6?. Several, like Grasses, secrete 

 a quantity of flinty earth, mostly lodged in their cuticle. 

 They are natives of marshy or watery situations, chiefly 

 in cold or temperate climates. Many of the older syno- 

 nyms are very obscure. 



1. E. sylvaticum. Branched Wood Horsetail. 



Branches compound, curved downwards, smooth. 



E. sylvaticum. Lm«. -S>. P/. 15 16, Willd.v.h.Z, Fl. Br. \\02. 

 Engl. Bot. V. 27. t. 1874. Hafod Tour, 15. Hook. Scot. p. 2. 161. 

 Bolt. Fit. 30. t. 32, 33. Fl.Dan. t.\\82. Ehrh.Crypt. 161. Rail 

 Sijn. 130. 



E. n. 1680. Hall. Hist. V. 3. 3. 



E. sylvaticum, tenuissimis setis. Bauh. Tkeatr. 245./. 



E. sive Hippuris tenuissima non aspera. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 

 723, 2./ 724. 



/3. E. sylvaticum procumbens, setis uno versa dispositis. Dill, in 

 Rail Syn. 131. 



In shady moist woods, by trickling rills, but not very frequent. 



Found chiefly in mountainous situations. By a wet dripping rock, 

 beyond Tyloge bridge, to the left^ at Hafod, Cardiganshire. 



Perennial, j.'ipril, May. 



A very elegant species, twelve or eighteen inches high. Stems 

 erect, beset with many whorls of slender, compound, angular, 

 smooth (not rough) spreading branches, drooping at the ends; 

 each whorl having a pale-brown torn sheath above it. Catkin 

 solitary, terminal, erect, ovate, on a naked stalk. 



The variety |3 is a very trivial one, accidentally procumbent, whence 

 the branches are ail turned upwards from the ground, and be- 

 come unilateral. 



