486 THE HOKSETAIL FAMILY. 



the E. Telmateia is held upside down, so that the branches fall lan- 

 guidly, it is easy to see the origin of the name of these curious plants. 

 The fructification is borne in terminal and conical spikes of a brownish 

 or greenish-yellow colour, and varying in length from half an inch to 

 two inches. Some species have their spikes on separate stems, which 

 in that case are devoid of branches, and appear a month or two earUer 

 than the branched ones. (Fig. 213.) Whether the fertile stems be of this 

 different figure or not, both fertile and barren ones are always produced 

 by every species (as happens with the fronds of ferns), so that every 

 species has to be learned under two aspects. The spike consists of 

 several whorls of little shield-form and many-angled scales standing 

 slightly apart, so as to give it an elegantly tesselated appearance, and 

 complete the superficial resemblance which it bears to the cone of a 

 fir-tree. Under every scale there are six or seven little thecse, filled 

 with minute spores, and opening internally ; the spores, which are 

 greenish, and innumerable, dusting out readily as a fine powder. 

 When magnified, they are found to have four little club-headed fila- 

 ments attached to the base, as represented in the figure (214), the 



Fig. 214. 

 Spore of Horsetail (greatly magnified). 



latter endowed with the power of rapidly curling round the spore when 

 moistened with the breath, and presenting a very diverting spectacle 

 in their movements, which may be compared to those of a frightened 

 spider. 



The Horsetails have no immediate afl&nity with any existing family 

 of plants. More than any other plants, unless the Cycadacece, they 

 carry us back to the pre-Adamite ages, the organic forms of which are 

 now only known as fossils, and even now impart a strange and primicval 

 aspect to the scenes of their abundance, such as ordinarily we look for 

 only in the museum of the geologist. " Memorials of a class of plants 

 whose day is past, they seem, like the Cycadacea), to linger with us 

 not so much for their own sake, as to ' make former times shako hands 

 with latter.' "* 



Nine specios grow wild in England, and five of them near 

 Manchester. 



• See " Life, its Nature," A-c, p.p. 240—249, Ed. 2. 



