Equisetum.] CHARACE.E. 351 



duous teeth (black at the extremity) ; catkin terminal. Br. Fl. 

 ed. 3. p. 460. E. Bot. A 915. £.' ' Fl. v. iv. p. 339. 



Moist woods. Powerscourt Demesne. Woodlands and other places 

 in the County of Dublin, and many other parts of the country. Fl. 

 July, Aug. — Most of the Horse-tails are more or less rough to the 

 touch, and their cuticle abounds in silex; or flinty earth ; so that they 

 are admirably suited for the polishing of hard woods, ivory, brass, &c. 

 This species, E. hyemale, is by far the best kind for such purposes, 

 and is imported from Holland in considerable quantity, under the name 

 of Dutch Rushes. In Northumberland, Lightfoot tells us that the 

 dairy-maids employ it to scour and clean their milk-pails. 



8. E. variegatum, Schleich. Variegated Rough Horsetail. 

 Stems filiform, rough, branched only at the base, with 4 — 8 

 furrows; sheaths with white, membranaceous, lanceolate teeth, 

 (black at their base) ; catkin terminal. Br. Fl. ed. 3. p. 4G0. 

 E. FL v. iv. p. 340. E. Bot. t. 1987. 



Sandy sea-shores, &c. Portmarnock-sands, where it was first ob- 

 served by Doctor Taylor. Moist banks near a waterfall at the upper 

 end of Colin Glen, Belfast, where I found it in company with Mr. F. 

 Whitla, in August, 1833. Ballyharrigan Glen, near Dungiven ; Mr. 

 D. Moore. Fl. July, Aug. — The smallest of our species ; when 

 growing in dry shady places decumbent or ascending, 6 — 8 inches long ; 

 in moist ground, erecto-flexuose, or decimate, often two feet, as in my 

 specimens from Colin Glen; many of which have three or four alternate 

 branches inserted a little below the upper joints. — Doctor Hooker 

 states that Mr. Wilson finds it at Mucruss, Killarney, of an equally 

 large size, growing in water. 



Ord. 95. CHARACE^E. Rich. Chara Family. 



Organs of fructification of two kinds, on the same or on dif- 

 ferent plants ; in the latter case approximate or remote from 

 each other, always produced on, or at the base of, the lesser 

 ramuli or bracteas : — 1. Globules of a reddish or orange colour 

 (stamens of many authors), in maturity formed of triangular 

 scales, each of which, in Chara vulgaris, " has a vacant portion 

 in its centre, but the margin (which has a fluted appearance 

 under a small magnifier,) consists of a number of parallel, 

 linear-oblong, hyaline, hollow tubes, placed at small intervals 

 from each other, those forming the angles of the scale being 

 branched. Within these tubes are a profusion of globular, mi- 

 nute, orange bodies, (exactly similar to the sporules of other 

 cryptogamic plants,) arranged in no order, and escaping on the 

 least injury of the tubes. It is these little bodies which give 

 the orange colour to the globule." (Grev.J The globule is 

 filled with a mucilage and extremely delicate convoluted fila- 

 ments, arising from minute campanulate bodies and often arti- 



