DIVISION II. 

 yLOWERLESS or CRYPTOGAMOUS PLANTS. 



PLANTS DESTITUTE OF PROPER FLOWERS ; AND PRODUCINO 

 ♦pores, INSTEAD OF SEEDS. 



CLASS I. FERN-LIKE PLANTS. 



Flowerless plants, with a stem having a vaslhilar system and 

 for the most part with distinct leaves or fronds. Spore-cases 

 (the coverings of the spores, sometimes called theccE or cap- 

 sules), axillary, radical or dorsal, one or many-celled. 



Order CXLVIII. EQUISETACE^.— Horse Tails. 



Fructification in terminal cones or spikes composed of peltate 

 scales attached to a central axis, and bearing on tlieir inner sur- 

 face several cases or thecse, which contain the spores. Spores 

 oval grains, wrapped round with a pair of highly elastic elaters, 

 which uncoil themselves when dry. — Leafless herbaceous peren- 

 nial plants. Stems hollow and jointed, either simple or with 

 whorled branches, and furnished at the joints with toothed 

 sheaths. Stomates an-anged longitudinally on the cuticle, 

 which contains a large quantity of silica. 



ECIUISETUM. Linn.—B.ovst Tail. 

 Character same as that of the order. 



* Fertile stems simple, discolored, appearing before the sterile ones. 

 1. E. arvense Linn. : sterile stems erect or assurgent, roughish, with 

 12 — 14 furrows, the branches 3— 4-angled and ascending ; teeth of the 

 sheaths ovate- acuminate, subsquarrose ; fertile stems simple, erect; the 

 sheaths large, loose, remote. 



